


His Purrfect Mate

by CQueen



Series: Fur Will Fly [2]
Category: Dark Knight Rises (2012), Inception (2010)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, F/M, Human Experimentation, Implied Mpreg, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-19
Updated: 2016-09-16
Packaged: 2018-03-02 05:35:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 28,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2801483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CQueen/pseuds/CQueen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to "Like Cat's and Dogs'.</p><p>Everything should have been okay, the plans to return to America in the works, but of course Talia has to ruin everything by trying to cause more trouble for Blake and his new family, which of course means he needs to cause her plenty of trouble right back with Bane caught in the middle.  </p><p>Soon it becomes obvious that the town just isn't big enough for the both of them...and when one more person is added to the mix the final showdown between Talia and the members of the Gotham Compound becomes inevitable.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Quality Time Together

Note: Must have read the original work, 'Like Cats and Dogs', to understand this. Thanks.

Quality Time Together

The rain fell softly around them, something they'd both become used to over the years. It was easy enough to ignore now, though the way it saturated the world around them and invigorated the scents of the earth was something they not only paid attention to but enjoyed immensely. Due to his mask Bane's sense of smell wasn't what it used to be, but it was still strong enough that he had only a moment to register the change in Barsad's body language before he too caught the hint of a scent he would recognize even in a world designed to confuse the senses.

His kitten's.

"An hour old, thereabouts. A taunt, maybe?"

Inclining his head Bane silently agreed that it was entirely possible that Blake had trespassed on their land solely to piss them all off. This was his kitten after all. But if that had been the only purpose the feline would have lurked around Talia's land to drive her up the wall as well and he hadn't caught the man's scent there earlier. There was also the fact that Blake was apparently being driven near to exhaustion taking care of and protecting his brother's babies, which made him inclined to think that as much as his kitten loved to cause mischief, Blake wouldn't be doing that right now in case someone other than him was made to pay the price for his actions.

The fact that the scent was getting stronger the nearer they got to his own home…

"He's in your place."

"Yes." And that knowledge had Bane's heart rate picking up, the blood thickening and heating in his veins as new life and energy coursed through him at the thought of seeing his mate within the walls of his own home. The fact that he'd probably feel drained and dead inside once Blake left him, again, was in sequential. Happiness was always fleeting for him, he was used to it at this point.

And not wanting to share his kitten with anyone Bane turned and told Barsad that they'd have to reschedule their meeting for the next day. It seemed he had other plans for the evening.

"Be careful."

So saying Barsad took off without a backward glance, Bane grateful that his second hadn't insisted on coming with him to check the situation out before leaving. But then again Barsad knew what it was to love someone as he loved his kitten, and Bane didn't doubt that Barsad would gladly face down and burn in the fire of hells for even an hour with his Layla again.

Wolves mated for life.

He wasn't surprised to find his security full functional, though Bane made a mental note to ask Blake where the kinks were so that he could shore up his defenses so to speak. Knowing his kitten the man wouldn't tell him all his secrets, but maybe he'd let him in on some of them.

Stripping out of his jacket and removing his boots and weapons, Bane put them away and then following his nose found his feline's scent in his living room, though he didn't bother to linger there long since he knew Blake too well to think that his kitten would be anywhere other than the bedroom if he was still in the house and waiting for him. That being the case he headed upstairs and straight to the now open door that would lead into his bedroom, his nose telling him that his prey was indeed waiting for him there.

Taking a deep breath to center himself before stepping into the chaos his feline brought with him wherever he went, Bane stood in his doorway and watched as the quilts he rarely used were pushed back and down to pool around Blake's waist. His kitten was wearing a far too large dress shirt of his that his step parent had bought for him years ago, the garment's true appeal only obvious when Blake slid out from under the covers and came walking towards him, revealing the fact that the shirt was all he was wearing, the hem ending at mid thigh.

The fact that his kitten had cut off all the bleached hair was just icing on the cake he wanted to nibble and taste for hours on end.

"You're all wet."

As he watched Blake retrieved a towel the man must have liberated from the bathroom and tossing it over his shoulder Blake gave him a wicked look before coming over to stand in front of him, those long, clever fingers he loved so much moving to grasp the bottom of the shirt he was wearing. "You need to get out of these damp clothes or you're going to get sick."

For the moment Bane opted to play along, taking over the removal of his top so that Blake's fingers would turn their attention to his lower half where he wanted them most. And as per usual his kitten made short work of his belt and cargo pants, Blake crouching down to do away with the socks after he'd finished stepping out of the pants and boxer briefs he'd been wearing. That done Blake removed the towel from its earlier position and used it to wipe away the moisture that had seeped in through Bane's clothes, the action soothing as much as arousing Bane as he simply watched Blake take care of him without any obvious motive except for the one Blake had stated.

All his life he'd taken care of others, it was what he'd been bred and trained to do as the alpha male wolf in his compound. No one took care of him, no one would think he'd want or accept their tending for that matter. No one but Blake.

There was nothing sexual about what Blake was doing aside from the fact that he was now naked and he was pretty sure that his kitten was equally so under his shirt, the pleasure he was getting from his feline's touch entirely due to his deep seated need for this man's touch and attention. Ergo the drying off was over far too quickly and left him aching for more by the time the towel was finished being brushed over his head.

"Okay, under the covers with you to finish warming up. Come on."

Letting Blake take his hand and tug him over to the bed, why wouldn't he, Bane slid under the covers willingly, pleased to find it already warm from Blake's body. And then his kitten was sliding under the covers and on top of him, sprawling out on his chest with his head tucked under Bane's chin, the bristles of his very short hair lightly scratching at the skin there.

"Your hair is much better now." Wrapping one arm around Blake's waist Bane lifted his other hand to cup the back of his kitten's head.

"Says the man with no hair at all."

Chuckling a little, which was something he almost never did, Bane retaliated by pinching the bump at the small of Blake's back that was all that remained of the feline's tail. Loving the jerk and curse that elicited Bane smiled behind his mask and started stroking rubbing the nub the way he knew would get his kitten purring like a well-tuned engine. And he got the reactions he wanted, the way Blake started rocking against him more than enough reward as his kitten wallowed in his touch like the cat he was. His mate loved to be petted and stroked.

"God you're fucking good at that." The words were a little mumbled but Bane's sensitive ears caught them anyway, loving the huskiness of the man's voice. "You know just how to…mmmmmm. Bane…don't stop."

"I would touch you everywhere if you'll let me."

At his words Blake made a pleased sound before shifting up and onto his elbows, meeting Bane's gaze for a moment with heat in his slitted eyes. "Just keep doing what you're doing."

Happy to do so, even if he was getting harder by the minute with all the rubbing and purring his kitten was doing to drive him crazy, it was Bane's turn to jerk a little minutes later when Blake started to rub up against his body much more forcefully, the intent obvious to stimulate them both as their erections rubbed up against each other's as the shirt Blake wore rode up higher and higher.

"Blake…."

"Hush. Don't I always take care of you? Unless of course SHE shows up again. Then I'll really have to make you both suffer."

Since Blake punctuated that statement with a hip swivel that felt incredible and sent very happy signals to his brain, Bane wasn't up to answering that aside from a groan while sending up a silent prayer to any power that might be listening that they not be interrupted.

)

Keeping his face buried against the side of Bane's neck, he was determined to insure that Bane saw nothing on his face that he didn't want the stupid wolf to see, Blake contented himself with licking and sucking on Bane's neck while he continued to rub against his former lover like the cat he was. Of course soon it was too dry for him, unlike Bane his nerve endings had never been seriously damaged, so he finally pulled away and told Bane to give him a moment.

The man hadn't kept any lube around, he'd looked for that and other interesting stuff while he'd been waiting and been disappointed, Blake instead retrieved the hand lotion from its place beside the bed where he'd put it earlier for easy reach. Squirting some onto his hand before sliding back to his former position, Blake kissed Bane's neck again as he slid his slicked up hand between them to grasp both their erections together.

"Kitten."

Letting the disgustingly cute nickname go for the moment, especially since Bane had shown the sense not to call him that in public thus far, Blake simply turned his attention to getting them both off because quite obviously they both really needed it. The last time they'd been like this they'd only made out, which had left him seriously jonesing for more ever since. It was time to get his fix.

So despite his love of teasing there was no drawing things out or torturing them both with the wait, Blake getting them off as quickly as possible while retaining just enough of his brain to keep jerking Bane off after he came first, having spent nearly an hour waiting impatiently for Bane to come for this very reason. Luckily the wolf wasn't far behind him.

Slumping boneless against an equally sated Bane as he purred like mad, Blake lightly dug his second set of nails into the ridged muscles of Bane's naked shoulders on and off to show his appreciation, smiling at the state of his world in general.

Waiting until Bane's breathing had evened out, he was always half afraid the man would suffocate one of these days because of the stupid thing covering Bane's sexy as hell mouth, Blake nuzzled his face against the man's neck a little more and then got down to business so to speak.

"I need a favor."

Feeling Bane's body tense up a little under him Blake didn't have to be a genius, which he was, to figure out where Bane's thoughts were now going. And since he had come to ask for a favor hitting the idiot for his stupid thoughts wasn't the smartest idea, particularly since the idiot in question would hardly feel it unless he put more effort than he currently had to spare behind it.

"Bane…if I was going to manipulate you using sex I would have used my webbing to trap you on your bed and then using just my tongue licked you all over like a fucking ice cream cone while the vibrator I would have put inside your pretty arse stimulated you enough to drive you just as crazy as my tongue without actually getting you off. I would have tortured you that way, possibly for at least an hour, until you were so blinded by lust that you would have agreed to anything I might want if I'd take mercy on you and let you orgasm. Understand?"

Dead silence greeted that statement and question, Blake finally forcing himself to shift back up on his elbows so that he could get a look at Bane's eyes to get some gauge of how his words had been received.

Bane's eyes were so huge and dilated Blake couldn't help but smile as widely as he could before settling back down against the wolf's chest. He'd be kind and give the man a minute.

"An hour…?"

"Have you forgotten my staying power? Or are you just hoping for a reminder?"

"I've forgotten nothing."

Arching into the hands Bane suddenly started stroking up and down his back Blake basked in that as much as Bane's words. "So are we clear that I'm not being a manipulative bitch here like She Who Will Not Be Named since she kills my erections every time?"

Wisely not calling him on the name calling Bane asked instead what the favor was.

"As I understand it Doctor Ogdin is coming here soon and he'll be taking blood samples and running tests on members of your pack for his continued research into the effects of the experimentation. He also looks you over every visit because the scientists fucked up so badly with the Venom crap they exposed you to, but he doesn't do anything with Talia because she doesn't allow herself to be used as a lab rat unless she's actually ill. So she won't be there for the testing and such but you will, right?"

"Correct."

"Then the favor I need is that you order the wolves from your pack who get tested not to bring up any member of my family and us being here. Not so much as a peep."

Tightening his arms around Blake's waist Bane asked him why, especially since Ogdin had never been in charge of his feline's compound. The doctor had only occasionally consulted with the men and women in charge of the various hybrid compounds until they'd all come to England, which Blake and his brother had not.

"He and I only met a couple of times, but I made an impression."

"You do tend to do that."

Blake purred his agreement with that. "That's so very true."

"I'll see to it that my men don't reveal the fact that you are here. Or that your nephews exist."

"Thank you." Blake kissed Bane's neck. "I appreciate it."

"You're welcome."

Shifting but unable to go anywhere Blake smirked as he gave Bane's chest a pat. "Okay. Now you need to let me go for a second. I promise I'll be right back."

"Where are you going?" Tensing up Bane wasn't about to let Blake go just yet without a damn good reason. He didn't have to go anywhere tonight and while he understood that his kitten had an obligation to look after his family...he wanted more time with him. That shouldn't be too much to ask.

"I need to get something out of my jacket. Then I'll be right back."

Obviously reluctant Bane complied, Blake giving his mask a kiss before sliding off first Bane and then the bed. Deliberately putting some swing to his step just because he was an ass like that, Blake smiled over his shoulder at Bane before going into the bathroom to retrieve the phone he'd left in his jacket pocket earlier. Flipping through the features as he walked back towards the bedroom Blake had found what he was looking for by the time he'd rejoined Bane on the bed, though this time he sprawled out on his back so that he and Bane were facing the same way as he held the screen up so that they could both see.

"We've had happy naked fun time, and taken care of business, now it's family time. This is Wilee making his 'Not that stuff again' face. He really didn't like this brand of formula, spit it up EVERYWHERE."

Blake smirked when his whole body moved thanks to the chuckling Bane was doing. "And this is a picture of Luke and Wilee sleeping on Eames's chest after they just started randomly crying for no apparent reason and would only settle down if Eames held them. He was in the shower when I dragged him out of it and that was a nice view, I gotta admit. Anyways he passed out right along with them once they were done their crying jag. Watching kids wears a person right out, big time."

"They make an interesting contrast with his tattoos."

"Yeah, I wouldn't mind coming home to a hot man with our babies on his chest. My brother is a lucky feline. Aside from the surgery pains, sleepless nights, getting thrown up on, and all the other hassles that come with actually raising two kids while knowing it's probably only going to get worse with time. Though he is getting a ring on it so to speak, so at least Eames is stuck right alongside of him."

"A ring?"

"Yup, your cousin is planning on proposing to my brother tonight with a ring and everything. He even used my finger to resize the thing so that it will fit Arthur's. By the end of the year you and I are going to be family, Big Guy."

"That means you'll be spending more time here, doesn't it?"

"Not really, no. It's not safe to have the babies this close to your mistress, so as soon as they're big enough we'll all go home to the States and pretty much stay there unless something goes wrong or for the occasional visit. I mean it would be nice if that weren't the case since Eames does love his house here and so does Arthur, but short of killing your bitch off there's not a lot we can do since kicking her out would mean kicking you all out which isn't going to happen. Where she goes you all go, right?"

Sadly Bane had to agree with that.


	2. Information Gathering

Information Gathering

It was the day of Ogdin's visit and as promised Bane had informed the men that he'd picked for the testing that they were not to mention the felines currently living in the town or his cousin's twins. He'd waited until they were on the way to give the order since he hadn't wanted to risk that one of them would leak to Talia that they'd been asked to keep silent about the hybrids. That would have tipped her off that there was a reason Ogdin couldn't know about the felines and she would have used that to her advantage somehow. And as expected Bane could see that the other wolves wanted to question him about the order, but he was their alpha and so none questioned him. Of the ten men he was bringing with him Bane trusted only Barsad completely not to report his words back to Talia after the tests were over, but hopefully by then she wouldn't have time to cause too much problems. His kitten had said that he'd take care of the wolves under Kingsley's rule, and so he arrived at the hall with a somewhat hopeful feeling that things would be okay.

Everything was set up when they arrived, the large room slowly filling up as ten of the first wolves created, including Kingsley, his biological father, and uncle, mixed and mingled with ten of their descendants including Eames, who looked sleep deprived to Bane's accessing gaze, but happy too. Blake's brother had accepted his cousin's proposal apparently, the date not set as yet. His cousin would get his happily ever after with his mate, and Bane was happy for him. That he would not be so lucky was a familiar throb in his chest, one Bane ignored as he nodded a greeting in Eames's direction but didn't go over to speak to him.

There was little time to chat anyway before it was time to get the tests underway, Ogdin telling them to take seats until they were called over, thick questionnaires handed out for them to all fill out in the meantime. Knowing that he would be called last, as usual, Bane turned most of his attention to dutifully filling out the questions, his brain not remotely being taxed by any of them since he'd been examined, experimented on, and tested all his life. Being treated and thought of as little more than a rather intriguing lab rat by Ogdin was standard, these tests and talks something to tolerate and get through since arguing about their necessity would get him nowhere. The British and American governments wanted to keep a close eye on them, and fighting this would only draw more attention to them which they did not want.

As it was the bloodwork and physical evaluations Ogdin was doing were so basic that his aunt and her nurses could have easily gathered the data and sent the findings, but Bane knew that Ogdin considered them his finest work and liked to be more hands on where they were concerned.

When the old man died none of them would mourn his passing in the slightest.

It wasn't that the man was evil, he wasn't, it was simply that Ogdin was a scientist as opposed to a man who had any empathy or attachment to the rest of the human race. That was what made him so very dangerous. Ogdin could cause great suffering and pain without remorse or hesitation in pursuit of his scientific discoveries, and to this day Bane still remembered the way the man had told them that Layla had died unexpectedly in the night. He'd told them so bluntly and offhandedly, like the death of one of their most important pack members was no more important than an observation about the weather. If they hadn't all been in shock they probably would have torn the man apart then and there for his complete lack of humanity.

Feeling his cellphone vibrate in his pocket, bringing his thoughts back from the past, Bane retrieved it, not really surprised to see that he had a text from his kitten. The other man probably wanted to make sure that he and his men were keeping their mouths shut about him and his family as promised.

But no, the message had nothing to do with that, Bane saw, completely out to sea as to why Blake would send him a text informing him that his country's humor was weird. Especially since they were from the same country, which was what Bane awkwardly texted back. He hated texting, his fingers were too big for it.

'Technically you've lived in England longer than you did the U.S., so it's arguably your country now.' Was Blake's return answer less than a minute later.

Normally he would have argued that his formative years had taken place on American soil, and that above and beyond that he wasn't in any way, shape, or form, responsible for the humor or lack thereof when it came to the English, but that would have required too much texting so Bane opted to simply point out that humor was subjective.

'Like how unlike you, I'd find it fucking hilarious to watch Talia fall down several flights of stairs head first?'

'Yes'. Bane looked up to the ceiling in a 'why me' gesture after sending that response, the fact that any conversation he and his kitten had seemed to have always ended up turning to Blake's desire to cause Talia's bodily harm a constant headache.

'I'd give you a lifetime supply of blow jobs if you were the one to push her. Just saying.'

"What's wrong?"

Looking over at Barsad Bane didn't know where to begin. So he simply lifted the phone a little. "Blake."

"Ah." Knowing better than to ask, Barsad didn't inquire as to what his alpha's pain in the ass mate had said or done now. He preferred to avoid being mentally scarred whenever possible.

To spare his second more mental scarring Bane didn't explain, instead typing out a message that informed the feline that he wouldn't continue this conversation if Blake just wanted to talk about the physical harm he wanted to cause Talia.

'Can we talk about the mental harm I'd like to cause her?'

Shaking his head, and determined to be firm for once, Bane texted back a goodbye. He had to completely his paperwork anyway, Bane told himself as he sent the message. And Blake wouldn't respect him if he didn't put his foot down more firmly. That they both knew he was pretty much wrapped around the manipulative tease's clawed finger…

His cell sounding again Bane mentally prayed for strength before accessing the message, knowing Blake too well to think it would be just a return good bye.

'So rude. And here I was going to offer to give you a full physical to make sure Ogdin didn't miss anything tonight if I can get away.'

'Behave and perhaps I will let you.'

'Heh. Who are you kidding? You know you don't want me to behave when we're together. You love it when I misbehave.'

That there was a picture attached to the message sent a foreboding shiver up Bane's spine even before he accessed the picture to see that it was of him, his arms webbed to a headboard, the look on his face so blissed out and…happy that Bane couldn't believe it was his own face even though he knew it was.

'When did you take that?'

'I have a number of pictures of you. If you're a good boy maybe I'll let you see them someday.'

On the heels of that message was one stating that it was his turn to say goodbye, Wilee and Luke had decided that they were hungry again and Arthur was napping at the moment.

Returning his cellphone to his pocket after typing good bye again, Bane couldn't help but wonder just how many pictures his kitten had taken of him while he was unaware or asleep. And whether or not anyone else had seen them, and just what areas of his body had been captured on the little imp's cell. Oh shit.

Years of discipline and the knowledge that it would do him no good kept Bane from groaning or walking over to the nearest wall and bashing his head against it, but it sounded damn appealing regardless.

Not knowing or really wanting to know what Bane's mate had done now, Barsad reached over and gave Bane a pat on the shoulder in sympathy.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

)

They had just finished up, the others preparing to leave as Ogdin announced that it was Bane's turn to be poked and prodded, when Talia was suddenly making her way towards the front; he'd missed her arrival completely. And knowing he had no chance of stopping her, and sensing that somehow she either knew about the orders given concerning Blake's family or just wanted to cause trouble for them, Bane cut off the conversation he was having in midsentence and started to move towards her, having mentally prepared for this possibility.

Blocking her with his body Bane spoke to her in Arabic as he stated that they'd agreed not to speak of the town's guests in front of Ogdin. He had given his word.

Bane could also see out of the corner of his eye that Kingsley had also moved to intercept her, and he was grateful that the man had the sense to let him handle this as he stared into Talia's eyes, willing her to cooperate.

"I won't mention them then." Was her answer, Talia's face betraying nothing of her thoughts on the matter as she reached out to give his shoulder what she probably thought was a reassuring pat. "I just have a question for him and then I'll go. That is all, My Friend."

Moving out of her way, what else could he do, Bane watched as she went over to greet Ogdin, who didn't appreciate the interruption but was being polite enough since the man knew that to do otherwise would cause problems for him later on. None of them failed to notice that everyone who'd been preparing to leave was now staying in the room, waiting to see what Talia was up to.

"My apologies again for interrupting, Dr. Ogdin, I just have a question for you and then I'll get out of your way. It's about something that occurred to me a while ago." Talia was all smiles for the old man, who told her to go ahead with her question. "I was just wondering why you and the other doctors didn't try for multiple births when creating the hybrids. With triplets or more you would have upped the chance of more surviving infancy, yes?"

Immediately everyone saw what she was doing, bringing up the hybrids that way, but no one could say anything without tipping the doctor off that something was going on. And as long as she didn't outright bring either set of twins up…maybe she would get enough information to satisfy her need to know everything she could about Blake without causing problems for them.

Taking off his glasses for a moment, Ogdin began to polish the lens as he answered. "It was considered, but the hybrids were being born with too many defects already, and we decided that the odds of that happening would only increase if we attempted to use fertility drugs for that reason. The one set of triplets and four sets of twins that survived infancy were natural occurrences."

"I've only met one pair." Talia spoke quickly, not wanting to risk being interrupted as she inched closer to her target.

"Yes, none of the others lived long enough to come here. It's strange really, the bond between multiples. One would die and the other would follow soon enough. Most of them died fairly young, they were too damaged to survive, and the one set…well it was for the best that they were killed in the end. One of the triplets is still alive; I don't know if he knows he had siblings originally, they died so young." Ogdin shrugged that off, it not being remotely important to him. "So yes, only the bird hybrid twins survived for you to meet. Is that all?"

Everyone thinking the same thing, that Blake and Arthur had to be the pair that was 'killed in the end' even if that didn't make any sense since they were alive, it was Barsad who asked why it was for the best that the one set of twins had died. Had they been defective in some way?

"Defective? Oh no. Quite the opposite. The pair of them were the finest hybrids ever created. Perfect, really." Ogdin shook his head regretfully, glasses back in place now. "The physical irregularities that resulted from their animal DNA were easily removed or hidden, no medical conditions or deformities to speak of with both demonstrating high tolerances for pain and excellent healing. Given the number of surgeries and experimentation they both went through…it was remarkable really, what excellent physical specimens they were. Genius level minds too, utterly brilliant. And of course lethal, particularly the younger one, which was what they'd been bred to be. They were considered the pick of the litter, so to speak, by the people in charge."

It was Kingsley, his voice bewildered, who asked why Ogdin was glad they were dead if they'd been so perfect. Creating the perfect hybrid of man and animal was the man's dream after all. Was he just bitter that he hadn't been the one to 'create' the twins they were talking about?

"I argued that they should be put down because they couldn't be controlled." Was the doctor's blunt reply. "As long as you had the one you could force the other to cooperate, but both of them…they just couldn't be broken or brainwashed like the others were. When they looked at you…you could see in their eyes that it wasn't a question of if they'd kill us if they got a chance, but simply a matter of when. And it would have only been a matter of time with them, one bite, you see, and you're dead. It's why they were slated to kill Bane, if that became necessary."

"What do you mean, slated to kill me?"

"Well as I found out after the fact, from some of the other scientists I talked to, the organization was worried that al Ghul intended to make you wolves his personal army and perhaps take the hybrids from them. It was thought that if need be the order to kill the higher ranking wolves would be given, the others spared if possible."

Bane asked why only the higher ranking wolves had been scheduled for assassination when ALL the wolves in his pack were loyal to both them and their former leader, those of his pack in the room growling in absolute agreement with that statement.

"They believed that the lower ranking wolves could be indoctrinated to follow the more alpha hybrids, as your betas wouldn't know how to function without someone giving them orders and leading them. I told them, when I found out, that odds were the whole pack would have had to be eliminated as the betas would have tried and failed to get revenge for your losses."

A number of much deadlier growls rent the air over that, Talia's face one of absolute fury while Bane continued to try and wrap his mind around the fact that if the twins Ogdin was talking about were the Blake twins, then his former lover had basically been trained to kill him when they were teenagers.

"My father said they were all fools. Thinking that a couple of hybrids could defeat Bane or I." Talia's voice dripped with derision at the very idea.

"Oh no, they would have been quite successful. They even ran simulations to project the likely outcome if one of both of the feline hybrids attempted to assassinate him. The odds were overwhelmingly in their favor, especially in those scenarios where he was unaware of the threat they posed initially."

When a hand settled on his shoulder Bane was surprised to look over and see his biological father standing at his side, the older man commenting that from the sounds of it these scientists and the organization had been eager to kill all their children.

"Children? Oh, you mean the wolves and hybrids. I see." His expression of bafflement leaving Ogdin's face, the scientist had never thought of them as children, it took a moment for him to re-gather his thoughts before continuing to explain why the cold blooded murder of his experiments wouldn't have led to all out massacres in his expert opinion.

"You have no experience with that particular compound, so it's no surprise really that you would doubt their ability to put down the wolves quickly and without suffering any real injuries on their part." Reading the continued disbelief on their faces Ogdin elaborated a little, wanting to get this conversation over with so that he could get back to his examination of Bane. "Just for an example, since we were talking about him earlier, the younger twin was highly venomous. All he'd have to do with sink a fang into Bane's flesh and that would have been the end so to speak. No antidote, no time to even really realize one's impending death, it would kill him so quickly. We tried to milk the feline's fangs, sell the venom, but as it turned out it had to be freshly delivered to work effectively. Pity, that, though fascinating as well."

"So these twins were trained to kill us, who cares? We would defeat them easily."

"Actually, someone else was assigned to you, Talia. The threat you were thought to pose wasn't nearly as high as Bane or Barsad for instance. In your case it was felt that with your past history, it was only logical for their most recent addition to be given the opportunity to end you. A sort of poetic justice as it were."

"And who would that be?" Talia demanded to know, the reference to her having a past history with some unknown hybrid confusing her. She hadn't personally met any of the other compound's hybrids until after they'd been brought to England and forced to all live together.

"Why Captain Kingsley's genetic offspring of course. Layla."


	3. Transferring Blame

Transferring Blame

Trying to hold a conversation or ask questions proved impossible then, everyone talking at once either to each other, Ogdin, or no one in particular, the speakers simply wanting answers, as confused as everyone else in the room. That everyone had different questions didn't help either, everyone seeming to forget the chain of command as they vied to be heard among all the other voices. The majority of Bane's packmates wanted to know about Layla, who had been one of the most popular, if not the most beloved member of their pack. On behalf of their leader Kingsley's pack also wanted to know how their captain's late daughter factored into this, but also why Ogdin would say that they knew nothing about the compound the twins had been from, and also what more he knew about the potential dangers posed by these twins that were so dangerous even Bane wouldn't stand a chance against them. Talia also wanted to know more about the twins, but was more focused on arguing that Layla wouldn't have stood a chance against her, which her own pack knew to be false but didn't say since they weren't stupid, and had other, more important things on their minds at present.

Bane had a lot of questions too, but at the moment his focus was on Barsad, who was just standing at his side, not saying a word. His second tended to get that way, when it came to discussing Layla. Even the mention of her name brought Barsad pain, and for that reason their own pack made it a habit not to bring her up around him. The same could be said for Kingsley, Bane noted with a glance in that direction, the older man talking quietly to his own second, Bane's uncle.

Back and forth the voices went, and then a sharp whistle cut through the noise, slicing through the voices and quieting the speakers. Wolves had sensitive hearing after all, and the whistle had been a sharp, piercing sound. That was deliberate though, everyone looking in the direction of the noise maker, who happened to be Eames's father.

"Quiet. We will get no answers like this." The older man's gaze moved across the room in a way that made it clear that while he wasn't the most alpha wolf in the room, he was the one they damn well better listen to at the moment. "So to summarize, Dr. Ogdin, we would like to know what you meant when you said we didn't know enough about the twins' compound. The fact that the organization was run by psychotic idiots is something we all know, the fact that they thought Layla would act against her pack proves that."

There were a lot of growls of agreement from both packs, and they rarely agreed on much of anything. But Layla Kingsley's honor would not be questioned on penalty of brutal maiming delivered by both sides with glee.

Looking more than a little frazzled and taken aback by their shouting and growling, so very uncivilized and unsettling, Ogdin had to ask that the question be repeated before he could compose himself enough to think about his answer.

"Ah. I see the confusion…or at least their confusion." Ogdin gestured in the direction of Bane's wolves, his hand shaking a little. Then his gaze went over to Kingsley. "Why you seem equally confused is what puzzles me. You were given access to all the files on all the experiments, including your genetic offspring."

"And what is it exactly that you think I should know? What about my daughter?"

"Her transfer to the other compound and -" That was all Ogdin got out before once again the hall was so filled with angry voices that even if the scientist had tried to be heard, he would have easily been drowned out. As it was he didn't even try, his instincts screaming to call as little attention to himself as possible.

To end this shouting match it took Kingsley, Bane, and Barsad yelling for everyone to shut up to quiet people down, though even the most calm of them normally was vibrating with fury on behalf of either their packmate or their captain's only child.

It was in the quiet that Bane demanded to know what Ogdin meant by Layla being transferred. She hadn't gone to another compound, she'd died.

"No, though that is what you were told." Ogdin spoke matter of fact, though he had moved a little closer to Kingsley at this point, just in case, as he tried to bring some civility back to the room. "But as I was saying, Captain Kingsley was given her complete files so he knows the…" Trailing off the scientist finally seemed to realize that no, Kingsley didn't know what he was talking about and was just as on edge as the others. That was not a good thing.

"I don't understand…why would the government withhold that information from you? It makes no logical sense. She's dead, the exact nature of her death matters little." Layla had been one of his best results, he'd been sorry to lose her, but to get this upset about her made no sense to Ogdin. It had been years since her death!

"You told us she was DEAD!"

Bane just managed to grab Barsad's shoulder, holding the man in place when his second would have attacked and possibly ripped out Ogdin's throat with his teeth. That he actually had to put his muscle behind the hold spoke volumes.

Meanwhile, none of them had ever seen Ogdin move so fast as he did in that split second when Barsad would have attacked, the man now hiding behind Eames's father since the scientist had enough sense to pick someone else instead of Kingsley, who was looking more than a little feral now too.

"She wasn't transferred, she died! My father told me so!" Talia's voice held not a hint of doubt, so sure that her father would never lie to her about anything. Especially about this. Not about what had happened to that bitch Layla.

"Well he did expect her to die very quickly, that she didn't came as quite a surprise really." They wanted information, Ogdin told himself, so that's what he'd give them in the hopes of pacifying them. "Females tended to die at that particularly compound regularly unless they were specifically put under the protection of the organization, which she wasn't. Of course if not for the help of the twins she likely wouldn't have survived as long as she did but-"

"My father would not lie to me!"

"You were never rational where she was concerned." Ogdin's sigh was longsuffering, the scientist forgetting himself for a moment. "Just like your father, refusing to recognize and accept that she was simply born better than you."

"THAT BITCH WAS NOT BETTER THAN ME!"

"QUIET!" Kingsley's roar had everyone shutting up, no one in the room having ever heard him raise his voice to that level before. "Where was my daughter sent?!"

"Why to Gotham, of course. She died there with the twins we were talking about and all the other experiments housed there."

)

Information about Gotham had been sketchy at best; the organization had had just enough time to wipe all data about it from their records before their records had been ceased. And yes, the fact that those records alone had proven irretrievable had always been a source of suspicion in both packs' books, but as all the occupants of the compound were dead it hadn't seemed that important. All that they'd known for sure was that the explosion that had taken the structures out had been from within, those in charge of the compound choosing death for everyone as opposed to being captured. They didn't even have an exact number of deaths for their records, the damage caused by the explosives so fierce that retrieving enough remains for identification purposes had proven difficult, if not impossible the closer to ground zero they'd been. The scientists from the other compounds had been questioned, but each group had been largely insular from each other, and none of them knew much about the other compounds, much less Gotham. But all had stated that their best hybrids, the ones shown to have the most promise, had been sent to Gotham in the early days of the compounds. Then the scientists had started underplaying the value of their hybrids, as the ones sent before more often than not ended up dead.

"Why was Layla transferred?! Why were we lied to?!" Barsad wasn't struggling under Bane's hand anymore, he'd gone predator still. And Ogdin was the prey he'd zeroed in on. One wrong move and the scientist was dead.

"If you'd known she'd been sent away you would have rebelled. It was decided that it would be for the best if you all just thought she'd passed away in the night. As for why she was transferred, that is a question you should post to Talia." Ogdin was no fool; he saw that he was surrounded by feral wolves who were angry, agitated, and confused, which was not a positive combination. And seeing more clearly that it was his words that were whipping them into this frenzy, the scientist was smart enough to know that he needed to give them someone else to hate.

All eyes went to Talia, the look on the woman's face shocked as she realized that it wasn't just the others that were looking at her with murder in their eyes, but members of her own pack as well.

And Bane didn't move closer. He did not stand in front of her. Instead he stayed right where he was with Barsad, his voice deceptively soft as he asked her what Ogdin meant by that.

"He's lying! How can you trust him over me? Over OUR father?!"

Kingsley's voice was like a whip as he demanded an answer from Ogdin.

"She attempted to assassinate Layla and lost. Al Ghul removed her to protect his daughter from retaliation."

Barsad said not a word, he just twisted and lunged for Talia, his only thought to kill her.

Members of their pack moved to stand to protect her, but it was automatic gesture on their part, borne or training as opposed to an actual desire to shield her in that moment. And Barsad would have easily slammed his way through them when Bane grabbed him and whirled him around instead.

Bane caught the fist thrown at him, deflected the kicks with ease while his gaze demanded that Barsad look him in the eyes. "If what he says is true her fate is unknown. But there are two people we can ask for the truth. Think, Barsad. Think."

Realization dawned on Barsad's face, but he quickly shook his head, hope un allowed to take root in his scarred heart. "No. If she was alive she'd have come to me. She'd have found me. Nothing would have stopped her."

"We need to go see them. To ask them what they know. And if Talia is responsible for her death then she will forfeit her life for that betrayal." A gasp from those in the room, though none was louder than Talia's at Bane's proclamation. That he of all people would say that and so obviously mean it. "She will be taken back to her home and guarded there, Kingsley will provide men as well to make sure Talia stays there until we have more information. We will go and find out the truth as they know it. If they give their word to speak honestly they will. They are honorable men."

"Who is the 'they' he's talking about?" Ogdin wanted to know, no one answering him.

No, instead the topic of conversation quickly turned to the fact that when Kingsley ordered that Bane's cousin come forward to arrange for the meeting, no one stepped forward. The man in question, Salar as well, had slipped out of the room at some point with no one noticing.

Gone, they all quickly concluded, to warn the feline hybrid twins.

)

Standing at the end of the laneway Arthur and Blake waited for Eames and Salar to arrive, each holding a baby in one arm, their other holding the bags that had quickly been filled with clothes and other supplies that Eames and Arthur would be needing for themselves and the babies. There wasn't a bag for Blake, they both knew that he needed to stay behind to face the wolves and the questions they'd have for them. Eames and Salar hadn't stuck around as soon as Layla was mentioned, as ordered, and though Eames had been puzzled by that edict he'd agreed to it. Now it would be up to Arthur to explain things to the forger while Blake was explaining to Kingsley, Bane, Barsad, and whoever else came to collect them.

"They would hunt us down like the wolves they are, but we were raised to evade them."

"You can't go far in case we need Eames's mother. And if they have me they'll settle for that." Blake looked over at his twin, his reason for living, with a smile meant to reassure. "They won't hurt me, you know. And if need be I'll get away from them easily enough. We were raised to evade them."

"You also seem to think annoying them is your reason for living far too often."

Smirking, Blake could only shrug since it wasn't like that wasn't true. He did love fucking with Bane's pack, and Talia in particular. But they wouldn't bring her, they wouldn't be that stupid. "They want me to cooperate."

"And will you?"

"Sorta."

Rolling his eyes Arthur breathed out a calming breath. "Please, Blake, be nice. They'll be rabid depending on how much Ogdin tells them before they get here."

To amuse them both Blake deliberately snorted. "Are you suggesting I can't handle a bunch of dogs? Really? Have some faith, Little Brother."

Setting the bag he'd been holding on the ground for a moment Arthur reached out and cupped his brother's cheek. "You're not the only one who would be lost without their other half."

Nuzzling his cheek against his brother's touch, Blake smiled and promised to be careful. He'd be as nice to the wolves as he could be, though not Talia. He couldn't be nice to her even under punishment of death.

Since he couldn't either, Arthur didn't argue that point.

Lapsing into silence Eames pulled up two minutes later, Salar hopping out of the passenger side while Blake moved to open the back door on the driver side. Tossing in the bag he was holding and then taking Luke from his brother, Blake held both babies until Arthur was inside the car. Once Arthur was buckled in, Blake handed the boys over and then closed the door behind them.

That done Blake walked the few short steps to the driver's seat window, which Eames had already lowered. "I'm sticking behind, Arthur will explain. Drive fast and keep them safe or else."

Opening his mouth it was obvious Eames wanted to argue, but either the gravity of the situation or the look in Blake's eyes kept him from even attempting to change his future brother-in-law's mind. Instead Eames simply told Blake to look after himself and not to do anything stupid.

"Me? Never."

"I'll look after him." Salar promised, having come to stand beside Blake's side. He would stay as well, his family here. And that aside, Blake was both his alpha and his previous alpha's mate. Nothing was more important than guarding the feline even though he was willing to admit that in a fight Blake was far more dangerous than he was. But if nothing else he could provide a distraction or assist the hybrid in fleeing, if necessary, later. And while he wanted to ask questions about Layla, Salar reined those questions in for the time being, instead pointing out that every minute counted currently.

Agreeing with that, Eames stated that he'd see them soon, and then they were driving away, Blake and Salar watching them go until they were out of sight.

"Well, we might as well head back to the cabin. I could use a drink."

"Getting drunk before they come would not be a good idea given the mood they'll be in." Salar voice was dry as he followed Blake up the dirt road that led to the cabin. "Especially if Layla is under discussion and Barsad is one of the wolves coming here."

There was question in Salar's voice, Blake hearing it and understanding what the wolf wanted to know.

"There's a couple things we have to do yet, and by then our guests should have arrived and I can explain things all at once. You'll get your answers though, don't worry."

Thinking that worrying was just common sense given his alpha's personality and past run in with his former pack, Salar shook his head but didn't question the other man further. No, the wolf decided, he would be much smarter to spend his time praying to every deity he'd ever heard of that the conversation ahead didn't end in bloodshed. A lot of bloodshed. And that the others had the sense not to bring Talia with them, because if they did bloodshed was pretty much guaranteed at this point.

)

The car that drove up to the cabin came to a stop behind Salar's car, four men getting out to study Blake and Salar, the two having come out of the cabin as they'd driven up. Bane, Barsad, Kingsley and Eames's father all wore identical, emotionless faces that gave nothing away as they walked up to the short set of stairs leading to the porch, climbing up one after another before coming to a stop in front of the two men they'd half expected to find gone when they arrived.

"The others?" Eames's father asked, since he'd come along not just to support his captain, but to act as a shield if his son, grandchildren, and future son in law needed him to.

"Gone on a bit of a holiday." Was Blake's oh so casual response, the feline smiling at them knowingly before opening the door beside him. "Shall we?"

Four nods, the wolves moving forward to enter the cabin to be followed by Salar and then Blake, who closed the door firmly behind them.

Now things got interesting.


	4. All About Layla

All About Layla

Blake had set things up for their guests in advance, the best whiskey Eames had in the house sitting out with glasses beside it, ready to be poured and distributed to his 'guests'. And once everyone was seated that was precisely what the feline started doing, uncapping the whiskey and beginning to pour it out while the wolves watched him intently, like he was a bomb that was about to go off at any second. A fair analogy for him, Blake had to admit, especially since what they had to talk about was bound to cause a few explosions all on its own.

Not being the cruel sort either, Blake spoke after the second glass had been filled. "To get straight to the point I don't know exactly how much you all know, Eames and Salar left the party a little early. So what's say you summarize what you know or think you know, and we'll go from there? Kingsley first, as the voice of reason."

So while Kingsley summed up what they'd learned in precise, to the point sentences, Blake listened while pouring the rest of the drinks and handing them out to everyone. And once served Blake took his place on the chair Salar had insisted he sit in, the other man ranging behind him to act as his protector. Not that the man would be able to protect him if the others tried to come at him with real intent, but that was okay, Blake knew he could protect both of them if need be. Probably.

And once Kingsley was done speaking Blake gave Bane an amused look, with a definite hint of pride in his voice. "You locked her up. Look who's found his big boy pants."

"Blake." Salar said only that, but his tone made all the other words he wanted to say clear.

"Right, sorry. I'm supposed to be behaving."

"Look at Barsad."

Doing as directed Blake stared into Barsad's eyes and felt like the lowest lifeform on the planet. Shit, he really was being an ass. A worse creature than Talia really, when he factored in the fact that the man in front of him was suffering so blatantly. Without a word, without a sound, but suffering, big time. And he was only making it worse.

Placing his hands on his knees Blake leaned forward so that his forehead was almost touching his knees. "I apologize. That was wrong of me."

"Tell me what you know of Layla."

Lifting his head, Blake nodded humbly. "Understood. And first and foremost, yes…she is alive."

"If what you say is true, why didn't she come to me? Let me know?" Unlike the others, who were stunned silent, Barsad continued to hold Blake's gaze, refusing to let what the hybrid had just told him sink in. He'd been lied to. Over and over he'd been lied to. He would not believe anything blindly this time.

"At first she couldn't. She was very badly injured during our escape."

"What happened?" Kingsley demanded to know, his voice harsh and raspy with emotion.

"We were the ones who sent you the information about the experiments in the U.S., and we knew when you were coming and what would happen to us if you took us in. We weren't like the other hybrids, we weren't born and trained to be soldiers. We were born to be assassins and spies. To kill, to be lethal, and pitiless. We couldn't have been debriefed and adopted into new families like the others. Many, most of those in the Gotham compound…they were too far gone to survive in the world in any normal capacity. They've have just gone out and done what they'd been trained to do. What they'd gotten a taste for from the start. Spilling blood and causing pain." A pause. "And that's why those of us still sane, still with some grip on our humanity, knew we had to blow up the compound to make sure the evil living there didn't get out when you came."

"The experts said the detonation was activated-"

"By Crane, yes. He found out, we're not sure how, but it was too late for him to contain us or deactivate the bombs we'd set, much less find them all by then. So he tried to blow the whole place up himself so that at least we wouldn't survive either. That's how she was hurt, she was one of the last ones out, and she was helping one of ours that had been shot in the leg during the escape. She was almost out…"

Closing his eyes for a moment Blake could still see it, remembering yell at her to hurry and thinking for one second, one second that she'd make it and then she and Bruce had been hurled by the force of the blast into the air, all around them smoke and fire and debris to cloud their vision and separate them more. And when they'd found them…

Feeling a hand on his shoulder Blake opened his eyes to see that Bane had gotten up and was crouched in front of him, concern in his eyes.

Smiling his thanks Blake cupped Bane's mask covered cheek in return for a moment, before continuing his story. "The hybrid she'd been helping, they went flying and she ended up acting as an inadvertent shield, taking the worst of the damage. She wasn't dead when we got to her, but it was touch and go. A lot of touch and go for weeks afterwards. And in the end…there was spinal damage." Blake turned his head to meet Barsad's gaze again. "She'd planned to help us out and then go to London after you. That was all she talked about. But she wouldn't have been able to protect herself from Talia, not while in a chair and half blind, and she knew you couldn't be with her all the time. That if necessary Talia would kill you both to get to her." A glance in Kingsley's direction, before back to Barsad again. "And bringing you to the U.S., to us…we couldn't risk it."

"But she's alive." Kingsley repeated, the grip he had on his glass tight enough to shatter it.

"She was in a chair until a little over four years ago. She got word about a surgeon doing some pretty sweet things with spinal injuries, and though he didn't have a high enough success rate in my opinion, she figured her chances would be better given her genetic advantages. Plus we had the money at that point, so she went for it." A quirking of lips. "It took her a year but she was finally able to stand on her own, and about two years later she was up to leaving the chair behind and really move around without even a cane for help. She's about eighty percent now; she wears a vest that provides her back with support."

And seeing the question, the demand Barsad was about to make, Blake held up a quelling hand. "By the time she was strong enough to come to you, all our intel indicated that you were too close to Bane and Talia to be trusted without question. And that above and beyond that, you were too integral to the pack's survival to remove, especially when it was so obvious she's up to something with the other groups. Add in the fact that she was brainwashed along with you guys to put pack first…it stuck. So she decided that since you thought she was dead anyway…she decided to stay with us instead."

)

A moment of silence and then Barsad was on his feet, striding swiftly away from them before beginning to pace up and down the length of the room, his breaths coming out in harsh pants while he clenched and unclenched his fists. His obvious agitation was completely antithesis to who the man he was, but everyone in the room was too smart to go over and even try to touch him. He needed to process, and would lash out at anyone who interrupted that.

"Ogdin stated that Talia tried to kill her. This is true as you know it? Why?"

Dragging his gaze from Barsad's form, Blake met Bane's gaze and nodded. "You barely survived the Venom, your place as Alpha of your pack was no longer certain. She, Talia, had the mindset that she needed to secure Barsad's loyalty to her, as he'd be the next Alpha if you died. Beta-Layla, was the major hurdle because they hated each other, and Barsad was totally loyal to Layla and vice versa. So Talia got it into her head that she had to remove Layla from the picture permanently. She ambush her with a blade in a deserted part of your compound, we're guessing that she thought the element of surprise would give her enough of an edge to get it done and over with before she was caught. Layla kicked her ass. When your compound people found them Layla had a knife to Talia's throat and it was pretty obvious they were never going to coexist now, especially since Layla had gotten it out of Talia at that point that she wanted to take Barsad from her."

"And to protect Talia her father sent Layla to Gotham." Bane's eyes were grim.

"He wanted her executed, but the organization didn't want to waste her either. He agreed to send her to Gotham because outsiders tended to die quickly there, it was all but guaranteed for females."

Kingsley leaned forward. "Ogdin said she survived because of you."

"Because she protected Quinn." Blake corrected, not about to take credit where it wasn't due. "We'd have left her to die at first, it was all Arthur and I could do to protect Quinn from the psychos at that point. But Joker got ahold of Quinn one day, and Layla saw it happen. Even knowing she didn't stand a chance she jumped into the fray to help her, and we owed her for that. While we basically beat the ways of Gotham into her we got attached and vice versa."

Eyes narrowing, Kingsley repeated Blake's last sentence.

"She was too used to her old world; she couldn't wrap her mind around ours. There was no comradery, no honor, no playing nice, much less fair in Gotham. Kill or be killed, prove you deserved to live or Crane ended you. We studied the wolves, we all knew her every move, how she'd been trained to react and defend before she even got there. Beating our training into her as quickly as possible was the only way she was going to live."

"He's right." Salar chimed in, thinking to defend Blake, who might not realize how ready the other wolves were to lash out at someone, anyone at this point. "He's been training me and they studied us, know us. She wouldn't have stood a chance. I've been going home every night wanting to curl up in a little ball and whimper like a little girl, but he doesn't have the time to train me nicely either. Survival is more important."

Kinglsey gave Salar a look of understanding before trying to focus on something else. "You called her Beta earlier."

"Yeah. That's what the other hybrids started to call her after a while. Our beta, since when she came she was all about hierarchy and trying to figure us out in terms she could understand. The scientists tried to rename her Barbara, and she'd answer to it, but she preferred Beta of the two. She said Layla was dead without her heart."

Blake glanced in Barsad's direction then.

"And she's…half blind?"

"Yes. Nothing we could do there."

While they absorbed that Blake reached into his pocket and using his cellphone sent info to all their phones, Beta having hacked for that information a long time ago. "This is her file, un redacted. Your government didn't withhold data about her, Kingsley, we didn't want anything related to our compound to be out there for you to find. Not if we could help it, anyway. Crane had to send Ogdin monthly reports about her; he had the seniority to demand it."

This stopped Barsad's pacing, the man pulling out his phone along with Kingsley and Bane. All three turned their attentions to their screens, seeing for themselves the pictures, physical updates, and evaluations that made it clear that she'd suffered and greatly while in Gotham. But she'd been there. They'd been lied to about that before today.

"They shaved off her hair. She was really proud of her hair." It was a totally unimportant, but none of them commented on that fact. Barsad had the right not to be rational.

"They shaved all our heads. One of the reasons my little brother is so obsessed with his hair." Blake rolled his eyes a little. "His little fuck you to them. She has it long now, she has long hair again."

Staring at the picture he was looking at Kingsley spoke to no one in particular. "She looks like a POW inmate."

"Yeah…being a POW would have been a step up for us. At least then half the hybrid population wouldn't have wanted to kill us just because they liked killing things. Though we were probably fed a little better than the average prisoner of war, gotta have a health body aside from the experiments and training."

Pause. "But speaking of pictures, I have some better ones to show you once you all are done looking at the other stuff."

"Pictures? Of her now? Show me." Barsad commanded.

Rather than argue, he wasn't crazy after all, Blake just nodded and got up from his seat, telling the wolves to crowd around the one couch and he'd get the laptop.

Retrieving the laptop from under his chair Blake set it on the coffee table in front of the wolves and then opening it up got it out of sleep mode and quickly access the file he'd downloaded onto a USB stick earlier. It was a file he kept on his home laptop of his favorite pictures of Beta, and he'd figured they'd interest the other men much more than the other files.

Putting it on the slowest slideshow setting Blake started it and then walked around the couch to stand behind Bane, wrapping his arms around the man's neck as he leaned against the couch, Salar at his side so that he could watch too, while sorta being on hand to protect Blake if necessary.

Not that it would be, all eyes and focus were on the pictures of the blue eyed, redheaded woman smiling out at them from the computer screen.

)

There were pictures of her alone or with others, primarily the twins, though with Quinn and Bruce as well. Her closeness to them was obvious in the posing and the way they touched in the pictures or looked at each other. Blake had asked Beta to go over the photos and take out what they didn't want outsiders to see when he'd learned that Ogdin was coming, just as a precaution, and Blake figured she'd chosen a number of the group pictures to punctuate the fact that the members of the Gotham compound were her family, and harming them would make her very, very angry.

It didn't surprise Blake that she'd removed pictures of herself in her chair, these were all more recent ones or where it wasn't obvious that she'd been disabled in any way. The fact that she wore an eye patch was pretty much visible with every photo, no way to get around it, when the damage done to the eye was not pretty and the eye patch was at least sort of dashing. The majority of the facial scars were light enough to cover with make up now though and hard to see in the photos as well. There was also a lot from their most recent trip to Disney, which was an annual thing on her birthday. She always looked her happiest at the Magic Kingdom.

Personally, Blake's favorite picture was of the three of them for a costume party, where they'd dressed up as characters from 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit?'. Arthur had gone as Eddie Valiant, since he was all about wearing suits anyway, and Beta had gone as Jessica Rabbit. For himself, he'd gone as Roger Rabbit…sorta. He'd worn white rabbit ears, paws, and bunny slippers, and his low hanging red overalls had sported a white tail on the back too. That, plus drawn on whiskers, had been the extent of his costume.

He'd gotten hit on and called a Playboy bunny numerous times throughout the night.

Blake also felt Bane tense up in reaction to the picture, which prompted him to lean in and whisper that he had more pictures of himself in that outfit, if Bane was interested in seeing them later.

Raising a hand, Bane placed it over Blake's hand, gave it a slight squeeze.

"She always wanted to go to Disney World. One of our caregivers when we were young told her all about it." Barsad's voice was soft, his eyes never leaving the screen for a second.

"Yeah, so she said. That's why we took her there, to celebrate the first birthday she had where she was well enough to go. It's a tradition now, we go every year. A lot of the long term employees there actually know her on sight at this point. She never gets sick of it…for reasons I've never quite understood. Thankfully she only made us do the 'It's A Small World After All' once. Before it wasn't a good idea, those boats are friggin cramped, but she wanted to try it and it scared the hell out of all of us. You want to be mentally traumatized, go on that ride. Seriously."

"After everything you went through, a ride at a place like Disney scared you?" Bane tipped his head back to give Blake an utterly bewildered look.

"Trust me, Sweetie, I wouldn't even send…no, I would totally strap Talia to one of those boats and lock her in that place, but I'd feel some twinges of conscience for doing it and that's saying something."

"It is disturbing." Salar volunteered, tacking on the fact that he'd gone as a teenager with his family. "All those little animatronics, the scary smiles on all their faces, and there's just so many of them, like it's a horror movie or something."

Pleased with the agreement, Blake gave Salar's back a pat of solidarity. "Exactly."


	5. A List of Demands

A List of Demands

Naturally it wasn't long after the slideshow was done that the topic of conversation switched over to the fact that the wolves all wanted him to contact Layla then and there so that they could talk to her themselves. And she was to come to England as soon as possible of course, they would pay for her ticket and she wouldn't have to worry about Talia, who was in lockdown at the moment. And once they had Layla's statement from her own lips and saw for themselves that she was alive the pack would formerly expel Talia from their ranks for what she'd done all those years ago.

Kingsley, Bane, Barsad and even Salar a little kept talking over each other to Blake, or adding on to what the man before him had said though Blake had no problem keeping track of their demands and keeping quiet with his own opinions, trusting that eventually they'd realize that the plans they were formulate hinged on his help, which he had yet to volunteer. Wouldn't volunteer, come to that, without consulting with Beta first.

Of course she could currently hear everything that was being said in the room, that had been easy enough to arrange, but that was beside the point. He wasn't wearing an earpiece, they'd have spotted and questioned that, and besides that he hated the damn things thanks to the sensitivity of his ears so he wasn't in contact with her at the moment to get her take on this.

So while they discussed how to get her to England, a private jet was now under consideration, Blake wandered away to get himself something to eat from the kitchen, aware that the rest were aware enough to pay attention to him leaving, Bane getting up to follow after him to no doubt make sure he wasn't making a run for it or contacting Beta without them around.

Looking at Bane over his shoulder, and throwing in a smoldering look just for fun, Blake decided not to take offense when that got no response, all the information the man had gotten in the last few hours no doubt having overloaded his brain to the point where he could probably strip naked in front of the man and Bane would have to think for a minute before recalling what generally happened when he was presented with that sort of view. Though in this case they had company, so Bane's first reaction would probably be to get him back in his clothes once his state of undress computed.

He was almost tempted to try it just to see what would happen.

Going straight to the fridge Blake retrieved the colby cheese he'd remembered from before, and bringing it over to the counter retrieved a knife with the intention of slicing up some of it, well aware of Bane watching him like he was a ticking time bomb.

"Would you like some? We've got crackers to go with it."

"We were discussing something important and you just left."

Blake smirked as he started slicing up the cheese, his grip on the knife a firm one, just in case. "I figured you'd all clue into the fact that I'm not under your command faster if I walked out. Plus I'm hungry, so this is killing two birds with one stone."

"You will bring her here."

"That's up to her." Blake spared Bane a quick glance. "She might think of me as her alpha, you lot are wired that way, but I don't tell Beta to do something unless I have a damn good reason to. Which currently, I don't. I'm quite content to insure that she's never on the same continent as your Talia, actually. I didn't fight so long and hard to keep her alive to have her end up dead, Bane. I mean seriously, we both know that you can say you'll put her down or exile her all you want, but you threw ME away for that bitch." And if Bane could do that, given what they'd had and had had the potential to have…well Blake wasn't trusting that Bane would follow through in the slightest.

"She attempted to murder one of our own without just cause."

"And if given the opportunity she'd murder me in cold blood, Beta as well. It's what she does, Bane." Stacking the slices of cheese on top of each other Blake cut them into threes so that they'd be the perfect size for the crackers.

"Kitten."

Turning now Blake lifted a hand and then flicked Bane hard between the eyes. "No calling me that within hearing distance of other wolves."

Bane blinked at him, the flick having caught him completely off guard.

Good with that, he was just sorry the man had the mask on so he couldn't get the full face look, Blake put the cheese on a plate and then went to retrieve the crackers, counting out the appropriate number before placing them on the plate too. He wasn't remotely surprised when it was Bane who reached out for him then before he could pick up the plate, Blake letting himself be turned so that they were facing each other, the grip Bane had on his upper arms a firm one that wouldn't be easily broken.

"You need to do this, Blake. You will not be allowed to leave here until we've seen her for ourselves. Kingsley wishes it as much as we do."

"You can try. And I'm even willing to stay for a bit." Sliding his hands up Bane's chest Blake put plenty of purr in his voice even as his eyes went cold and deadly. "But at the end of the day, people that try and put me in a cage don't meet good ends. You'd be very wise to keep that in mind."

Bane spoke softly now, obviously intending to soothe. "I would never cage you. But this is not just about Talia, but Barsad as well. He's lived not even a half-life without her. I have watched him suffer all this time, being able to do nothing to help him. Now I can."

It was on the tip of his tongue to point out that Bane had been just fine with resigning them to a half-life without the other, but that would be far too telling and Blake did not put himself out there that way. Especially for a man who'd treated him as Bane had, regardless of the reasons he'd had for doing it. But aside from the fact that Blake wouldn't allow Bane to know just how deep his hooks had gotten, there was also the fact that this wasn't about them, not really.

"Whether she comes is up to her. I won't budge on that. Now let me go."

"Blake."

"NOW."

Obeying him, at least for the moment, Blake waited until Bane had taken a step back before he squeezed by and collected his snack from the kitchen countertop. Plate in hand he headed back towards the living room, Bane following close behind him. Kingsley and Barsad were now silent, as was Salar who raised a questioning eyebrow in Blake's direction. Blake gave a slight shake of his head in response, making it clear the other man wasn't to interfere at the moment.

"You have no intention of helping us bring her here, do you?"

Appreciating Kingsley's bluntness, Blake gave them the same answer he'd given Bane. "I don't order her around. That's a good way to end up castrated. But I'll let her know what you want."

"I want to talk to her. Or tell me where she is and I'll go to her."

Feeling far more sympathy for Barsad than the rest, not to mention he was still regretting being a bit of an ass earlier, Blake gave the wolf his full attention, holding Barsad's gaze so that his sincerity would come through. "I'll talk to her. And I'm not going anywhere, at least so long as you all don't give me a reason to leave. She still loves you, I can guarantee that much. Unfortunately…sometimes love isn't enough."

Blake could feel Bane's eyes trying to stare into him, but he wasn't about to so much as look in the other man's direction after what he'd just implied. Nah ah, not gonna happen.

)

Bane knew his kitten well enough to know that the feline wasn't going to budge on this, and in truth he was prepared to protect the man from the others if necessary. But even Barsad was in control of himself enough now that he wasn't going to push, not when it was obvious that Blake was prepared to dig his heels in. And if nothing else Bane had made it clear to the other two on the way to Eames's place that he wouldn't allow them to harm Blake in any way. They would gain nothing that way anyway, Blake would not bend to anyone's will now that Arthur and the children weren't within their reach to use. Above and beyond that, Layla would not likely forgive any harm they might cause Blake judging from what Ogdin had said. She'd survived Gotham because of the twins, and that was a debt she would not take lightly.

In truth Bane still couldn't wrap his mind around the fact that she was still alive, even having seen the pictures and skimming over Layla's file. That Talia had done what she was being accused of…he wished he couldn't believe it of her. But he could.

"We've already stated that Talia won't be a problem, so what else is preventing her from coming here?" Kingsley's tone of voice made it clear he'd remove any obstacle personally.

"You said that all the wolves at the meeting believed the story Ogdin told them, and agreed with Talia being put under house arrest. What you're failing to factor in is the fact that I'm guessing the majority of the wolves Bane picked were ones he thought could be trusted. That if they were forced to choose between him and Talia, they would choose him. There are plenty of others in their pack that would pick her though. Some from the other compounds too, the way she's been courting them the last little while. So say you throw your Layla into the mix…and suddenly you have an incredibly dangerous wolf pack divided. Throw in their families for good measure, which ropes in your pack, Kingsley, and then add in the fact that Talia's a fucking psychopath to the mix. She won't just roll over and play dead because Bane told her to. She'd gut him if he tried."

That Blake didn't trust him to try, much less succeed, was obvious.

Bane couldn't argue that his kitten had a point, this would cause countless ripples and painful backlash within his pack, but they would survive it as they'd survived everything else and said so.

Blake's mouth was full of crackers and cheese, so the feline had to settle for giving him a derisive look.

Opting to take advantage of the fact that Blake couldn't talk at the moment, first Kingsley and then Barsad made personal pitches to at least be given a phone number or email address where they could reach Layla to talk to her themselves. It didn't have to be in person right away, and they would keep the information to themselves and guarantee that it wouldn't fall into the hands of someone else.

And it was while listening to them that it occurred to Bane that knowing Blake as he did, as well as being aware of how like her father Layla had been as a young teenager, it stood to reason that in the time Blake had had to prepare for his visit he would have set the stage for this very conversation.

"She's listening right now, isn't she? You have the room bugged."

Mouth again full, Blake smiled at him in response, a definite gleam in those golden, slitted eyes. He finished chewing and then, after swallowing, he answered the question with a casual shrug. "Yeah, but you can't hear her at the moment. We figured it was best that way."

"I didn't know." Salar blurted out in the quiet that greeted that statement. He was no longer a part of Bane's pack, but the loyalty was still there, especially as he was good friends with Barsad.

"He didn't know." Blake echoed cheekily, before selecting another cracker to munch on.

Of course Kingsley and Barsad were completely ignoring Blake now, talking into space as they encouraged Layla to get into contact with them, giving her the numbers and address that they could be reached at even though Bane imagined that she had the information at her fingertips. She's been the best of them when it came to computers, and even if that had changed Bane knew that this was Arthur's area of expertise.

Having already stated his own intentions where she and Talia were concerned, as well as figuring that he was not someone Layla would particularly want to talk to at the moment anyway, Bane didn't join in on the one sided conversations the others were having, getting to his feet and walking over to the seat Blake was currently occupying to talk to him instead.

Carefully, as sudden movements could end badly for both of them, Bane picked the feline hybrid up into his arms and then took the other man's seat, arranging his kitten in his lap until they were both satisfied with his position as Blake cuddled against him like it was the most natural thing in the world.

It was a testament to their preoccupation that the others in the room didn't look over or comment.

Breathing in his kitten's scent with pleasure, Bane sought to distract a little by asking if he'd really been trained to kill him back when they were still in the compounds.

"Of course. Like I'd let anyone else end you." To punctuate the statement Blake kissed Bane's throat teasingly before nuzzling his face there. "You'd have enjoyed the scientists' faces, when they realized that my interest in you didn't have a hell of a lot to do with causing your death."

"Oh?"

"They'd hook us up to machines, study our brain's reactions to images and questions. They thought that that would give them a more accurate reading on how well we'd been brainwashed into believing their bullshit. According to the files I read, when they first started showing me pictures of you my brain reacted the way they wanted, but then I always was a competitive son of a bitch. I liked the challenge of taking someone of your size and skill on. Then, during the last few tests, apparently very different parts of my lovely brain started showing activity. I'll give you one guess as to what area they were most surprised about."

Not having to guess, especially with Blake's tongue swiping along the length of his throat, Bane was about to say his kitten's name when something very belatedly occurred to him.

"Ogdin knows your first name, doesn't he?"

Instant reaction, Blake's entire body going stiff as his kitten literally hissed at him, the sound drawing the attention of the other three wolves in the room who blinked in surprise to see what they'd missed moments before.

"Don't you dare ask him for my name!"

It was Kingsley who muttered the question the rest of them were all thinking, which was essentially how bad could his name be?

"None of your neverminds."

And proving that she was indeed listening in Kingsley's, Barsad's, and Bane's cellphones all went off, the text message that crossed their screens wiping all thoughts of Blake's name from their minds.

I'll Come. Leave Blake Alone.

)

Having interpreted Layla's words to mean that putting Blake under house arrest wouldn't end well, the wolves finally left him in Eames's house for the day without stationing guards outside the cabin's exits. They did however place guards around the general perimeter of Eames's land, being careful not to trespass on the actual property since they all remembered very well what had happened to Salar's brothers when they'd made that mistake. Keeping on the feline's good side was a paramount at the moment, the two wolf packs currently in waiting mode with both sides knowing that everything would change when Kingsley's daughter arrived. When Layla came and they were all forced to deal with the consequences if what Ogdin and Blake had told them was true.

For the moment Talia was enduring her predicament with cold silence, refusing to speak to anyone, including Bane when he came by to speak with her. She just glared at him, eyes hard and demanding things from him that Bane couldn't give her. And once he gave up trying Bane took over watching Barsad as he was not about to risk his friend doing something stupid before they'd had a chance to sort everything out. That they both knew that Barsad would kill Talia if it all proved to be true went unsaid.

What Bane would do if that happened…neither of them was sure about that.

For his part Blake spent what was left of the afternoon and into the evening watching his 'guards' on his laptop, amused by their presence as opposed to worried. If he needed to leave he'd leave, it was as simple as that. That they thought they could contain him, well that was a little insulting but they were dogs, after all. Expecting great intelligence was asking for too much.

Plus thinking about the fun he could possibly have later, sneaking up on the guards once darkness fell and scaring the hell out of them, proved to be a good way to distract himself from worrying about Bane.

And he had far more important things to think about than the dilemma Bane would soon face, Blake told himself, but for the life of him he could only seem to distract his thoughts for so long before they returned once more to the question that was most likely on everyone's mind at this point.

When it became fact in the minds of both packs that Talia had tried to kill Layla, and had subsequently gotten her banished to Gotham and all that entailed…what WOULD Bane do?


	6. She's Got A Plan

She's Got A Plan

When the 'silent' alarm went off, signaling an intruder on the property, Blake soundlessly slipped from his bed of webbing to check it out, not surprised to see who the visitor was. He'd been expecting her, after all. She'd probably set off the first alarm to let him know she was coming, and now he could ignore the alarms she'd set off accidentally later on because yeah, the security measures he'd put in place got more extreme the closer to the cabin one got. And while she was an absolute genius when it came to computers and such, breaking into secure locations wasn't her forte, especially when the security was designed to keep out hybrids and wolves with serious skillsets in that area. So yeah, Blake was one of the very few people who could get through the security he'd set up, both because he'd installed the security measures in the first place and because he had his webbing on his side. Though he'd put sensors and such in the trees too, just in case.

But either way Blake appreciated the heads up, returning to his web with the handheld device so that he could monitor her progress as well as make sure that someone else didn't coincidentally try to enter at the same time. Odder things had happened after all. So he watched until she was on the cabin's porch, Blake setting aside his toy and cuddling back under his blankets, knowing she'd make her way up to the attic once she got into the house. Going downstairs to let her in would just piss her off.

His keen hearing picking up her presence from the slight noise she made when she used the walls below to springboard herself up so that she could haul herself up and into the attic, Blake waiting until she was up and walking towards him to lift up his blankets in a silent offering for her to join him.

Slipping off her boots first Beta set them off to the side and then with practiced ease got on the web and moved to spoon up against Blake's chest, smiling as the blankets dropped down and her alpha's arm came around to hold her in place.

"I was expecting you later in the morning." It was nearly one, currently.

"I hung out with Arthur, Eames, and the babies for a while first."

Made sense. "How are they?"

"Worried about you, but good. The babies are even more adorable in person than they were in the photographs you two sent me. If I wasn't stuck about coming here I'd have been tempted to steal them for my very own."

"They were lucky to take after our side of the family."

A feminine chuckle greeted that statement, as well as the observation that Eames wasn't exactly hard on the eyes either. Blake was just biased.

"True enough."

Comfortable silence descended for a bit, both simply enjoying the security of sleeping beside someone they had absolute trust in. And then Blake asked her if she intended to show herself tomorrow, or she was just dropping in so that he knew she was around while they all worked out some sort of plan as to how they were going to handle the wolves. Because while Salar would keep his mouth shut if Blake ordered him too, odds were Beta's father, Barsad, and possibly Bane would likely all be coming by in the morning to make sure he was still around.

"I already have a plan."

"Well that works provided I'll like this plan." Which Blake doubted he would, otherwise she'd be telling him about it right now instead of just saying she had one.

"You won't like it, but you're going to have to trust me. It's the only way."

Okay, it was a bad sign when she outright admitted that he wouldn't like whatever scheme she'd come up with. Unlike Arthur he was prone to stupid, seat of the pants schemes himself, so he wasn't the sort to dismiss a cockamamie idea right off the bat. That she was convinced he wouldn't like whatever she had planned, to the point where she wasn't telling him what she had planned, did not bode well for her. Because his own life Blake knew she would never risk, but her own…

"Beta."

"I've got this. And you don't need to do anything besides trust that I know what I'm doing." Her voice broke no argument, as well as making it quite clear that she had no intention of telling him what she had planned so that he could talk her out of it.

"You'll destroy your compound sweetheart for good if you up and die on him again. Just so you know."

"My compound sweetheart?"

"Your mate." Blake shot back, both of them well aware that that was how Beta felt about Barsad, even if she'd been pretending for years now that that wasn't the case so that she could survive without him.

Telling silence.

"He doesn't know me. Not really. I'm not who I was and he's not who he was. To think that what we had will still be there would be stupid. But I don't have an intention of ending up dead. Far from it. That would defeat the whole purpose of my plan so stop worrying. Injured likely, but when I'm done I'll be fine and the mess we're in will finally be fixed once and for all. You might even get your mate back."

"Do I have one of those?" Blake asked in mock surprise. "You'd think I'd remember getting ones of those. And that he'd object to you sleeping with me."

"Smart ass. You know exactly who I'm talking about."

"I am smart, which has nothing to do with my spectacular ass. But no, I don't know who you're talking about. Because if I had a mate, and neither of my species is known for being particularly interested in real relationships, I would certainly never pick some idiot who had his chance with me and blew it."

"Did he?"

Not liking what she was insinuating, especially since he knew she was right, Blake tried to change the subject by asking how she wanted to handle the wolves who were going to be circling the cabin tomorrow, if not actually coming in. Her scent would be hard for their canine noses to miss, after all, though he could wash her scent off easily enough in the morning if need be.

"I have no problems dealing with them. Any of them. Now shut up so that we can go to sleep already."

There were any number of reasons why they should hash this out now. Namely the fact that a misstep on their parts could cause an all-out war between the two wolf packs currently residing in the area, which the obviously wanted to avoid. People could seriously die; including themselves which was so not on Blake's to do list any time soon. But he also knew that he'd get further sussing information from her as opposed to interrogating, and hopefully he'd at least have all morning to work on her before any wolves but Salar showed up at their door wanting answers. Though that was probably too much to ask for.

Still… "Are you sure you're up to handling Barsad?"

"Are you sure you can handle Bane?"

"Where Talia is concerned? No. I can't stand him really, much less handle his stupidity where she's concerned." Snorting at the very idea, Blake pushed aside the thought that it should be Bane he was cuddling up with currently. Stupid thoughts about a stupid man.

"Well maybe I can work a little magic there too. But for now…shut up, seriously. I need to be well rested for tomorrow if I'm going to save the day and all that jazz."

"As you wish."

"And don't quote Cary Elwes from 'Princess Bride'. You are not now, nor will you ever be as hot as he is."

"Now that we're definitely going to argue about tomorrow."

)

The next morning they both slept in a little, though Blake made a point of getting them out of bed a good forty minutes before Salar was due to arrive so that they'd look somewhat presentable when he got there. Plus Salar finding them in bed together would definitely murk up a number of waters, and Blake figured the fact that he carried her scent on him, and he on her was likely bad enough all things considering. Not that he was above being a big enough ass to use that to screw with other people's heads, but not Barsad's. He would not do that. So he'd also donned a shirt that carried a hint of Bane's scent on it from earlier contact. Just for Barsad's sake of course.

And in an unusual show of chivalry Blake didn't comment over the fact that Beta had very obviously taken care with how she looked for once that morning. Not that she usually looked bad, but generally Beta was a T-shirt and jeans sort of girl, her hair in a ponytail or very messy bun. Unless she was going somewhere fancy or it was for a costume Beta didn't care about looking like a girl. And while she was wearing jeans she'd paired it with a girlie peasant blouse, light makeup, and had left her hair down for once. Of course part of that would be to hide the eye patch, but still…she'd dressed up for Barsad whether she was willing to admit it or not.

If she weren't a redhead Blake speculated that she'd be pale at the moment too, but again he didn't comment as he put some breakfast together, making extra since Beta tended to eat when she was nervous and that was definitely the case currently.

And as promised Blake distracted her by returning to his argument about how he really was way hotter than Cary Elwes, which of course led to their usual debate about what actors currently gracing the movie screens were the best looking. The fact that they had wildly different tastes in men meant that they could never agree with the other, and Arthur wasn't around to keep them in line with his own opinions, which was a good middle ground between their tastes.

So it was okay, but Blake really wished his twin was around to walk Beta through all this. Arthur was the sort who knew how to handle just about anything when it came to emotionally charged situations. Mostly because his brother had far more control over himself in that area than Blake and Beta had put together and they knew it. But alas, his brother was not around to help and so Blake did his best to simply distract, hoping against hope that their future wolfie visitors would behave themselves when they dropped by.

But yeah, they were two thirds of the way through breakfast, and deep in discussion of what Tom Hardy's best look for a movie had been, when Blake's phone signaled that Salar was on his way, the sound of the man's car pulling into the driveway reaching their sensitive ears a very short time later. That was followed by the sound of the wolf's feet on the porch, the door then being opened and Salar calling out that he'd arrived just in case a warning was needed.

Without commenting Blake and Beta both pushed back their chairs and got to their feet, walking in tandem out of the kitchen and into the hallway where Salar had been walking towards them, though he came to a standstill at the sight of them. Or to be more specific, the sight of Beta.

"Layla."

"Hello, Salar."

Going from absolute stillness to lethal speed in the space of one breath to the next, Salar was standing in front of them in a flash, scooping Beta up into his arms for a tight hug. Murmuring his name against the side of her throat Salar held her aloof for several moments before finally setting her back on her feet to grin down at her.

"It's good to see you again, My friend." Beta smiled and reached up to cup his cheek.

"And you. I…I don't know what the hell to say but fuck…you're alive and here and…I'm so glad that you are."

Laughing, Beta pulled him into another hug, obviously needing it as much as Salar did now that she was actually about to face her old pack head on. "Glad to be here. And that you're in our little cat pack now too. I've been sick of being the only canine in it. Constantly being surrounded by cats." A long, dramatic sigh punctuated that last part, plus a mock shudder for emphasis.

"I'd say we were happy to hand her back over to your pack, but you're part of ours now so we're stuck with both of you. One more dog to train properly." Blake made a face at both of them, though his eyes revealed that he was actually amused and pleased with the warm greeting between the two.

"Cat." Beta and Salar said at the same time, like it was a swear word.

"Dogs."

Amused by them Blake glanced down when his phone went off, the feline pulling it out to see that it was a message informing him that Kingsley was dropping by to see him in ten minutes if that was alright with him. He was bringing Barsad with him.

"Looks like we're about to get some company, Puppies. Your dad and Barsad are on their way, Beta." Not bothering to mention that Kingsley was asking his permission, Blake shot back a message giving the okay. Better to get this over with then draw it out. Plus this would cut down on the number of times Beta had to retell the story of how she'd ended up with the Gotham hybrids. It wasn't a fun story for her to tell.

"Oh." Forget pale, Beta suddenly looked a little green.

Walking over Blake reached out and acting on instinct cupped her cheek in his hand. "We'll be right here. I won't leave you alone with any of them unless you ask me to. And hey, at least Bane or the Bitch didn't come with them. That's a silver lining."

"True. With Bane around you might be too distracted to run interference." It was a weak comeback, but Beta was smiling a little as she said it, nuzzling her cheek into his palm for a moment before drawing back with a determined look on her face. "I've got this."

Giving her shoulder a squeeze in added support, Salar basically made it worse by stating that her dad and Barsad couldn't be more excited or anxious to see her. But she didn't tell him so, smiling instead like that wasn't half the reason she was terrified.

To distract herself while they waited for the next two wolves to arrive on their doorstep Beta asked Salar about his current life and his family, already knowing plenty from her research into her former pack but feigning ignorance quite well. And it worked pretty well too, right up until the point where all their sensitive ears picked up the sound of a car pulling into the road that led to the cabin.

Beta froze for a moment at the sound, her eyes immediately locking with Blake for the reminder that no, she wasn't doing this alone. That this might be one of the biggest moments in her life, and potentially emotionally devastating for her, but he had her back, and would come to her rescue if need be.

So she squared her shoulders, a soldier from birth, and with her head held high Beta nodded at them and then spinning around on her currently booted feet Beta marched towards the main door, Salar and Blake bringing up the rear.

)

Regardless of what name she'd answered to, Beta being her latest and longest of the main three, Beta had endured hellish situation after hellish situation without tears or running away from whatever horror she'd been presented with. She was one badass bitch if she did say so herself, which she was known to do. She took pride in that. And still…even the weeks she'd spent basically strapped down to a board while her back healed, the mental and physical torture she'd faced as she'd relearned to walk and believe that she wouldn't be stuck in her chair anymore, and worst of all, being separated from Barsad for what she'd thought was life, was nowhere near as bad as walking towards the front door and opening it up, knowing that Barsad would be on the other side.

What if he didn't like who she'd become? What if he found her ugly because of her scars and lack of an eye? What if he wasn't how she remembered, and his time under Talia's control had warped him into a man her Barsad would be ashamed to be?

Add in the fact that she about to meet her biological father for the first time on top of all the rest and Beta was really regretting eating so much at breakfast even if gorging was one of her coping methods.

But she'd lived through the Gotham compound, and for once Beta was grateful for that because it meant that she'd learned there how to present an untouchable, in control persona even if it was total bullshit on the inside.

She opened the door and stepped through it, her boots hardly touching the planks of wood that made up the front porch when the passenger door of the car coming up the drive opened and a man was jumping out of the still moving car and coming at her like a heat seeking missile.

And it didn't matter that the man was a blur of motion, or that the wind was blowing the wrong way to let her get his scent, because Beta knew who it was, and just that quickly she forgot everything else, her brain pretty much shutting down on her. Acting on pure instinct Beta became a blur too as she ran across the rest of the porch before throwing herself off of it, Barsad catching her on her landing in a tight, unbreakable grip that she returned as they both buried their faces against the other's neck like drowning victims getting their first gulps of fresh air.


	7. The Challenges Ahead

Note: So this was going to be a lot longer and more developed, but the muses just weren't and aren't cooperating and haven't been for a while now. So sorry for any loose ends that will be left in the end, I'll try to wrap things up a few chapters so you all at least have an ending. Thanks for sticking with it!

The Challenges Ahead

To give credit where it was due, Blake had to hand it to Kingsley for the amount of restraint the older man had shown over the last hour or so. The man had hardly had any chance to make real physical contact with Beta, Barsad having made it quite clear that he had no intention of letting her go from the circle of his arms for the foreseeable future. And more than that Kingsley hadn't had a chance to really talk one on one with his daughter either, since she was justifiable just as wrapped up in Barsad who she actually knew and had an emotional connection to. Not that she'd ignored her biological father, she'd spoken and hugged him when they'd been introduced, but for the most part Barsad and Beta were very obviously all about each other with very little else filtering through.

But the older wolf obviously understood, at least on some level, the sort of bond Beta and Barsad had, and therefore wasn't complaining about the fact that his daughter's 'boyfriend' was taking precedent over him. Well that and Blake was rather sure that the man still hadn't quite wrapped his mind completely around the idea that the daughter he'd never met, and had believed for years to be dead, was actually sitting beside him now on the couch.

Though technically the men were sitting on the couch and Beta was sitting in Barsad's lap.

The better to transfer his scent onto her, Blake thought with continued amusement, having noted that the wolf hadn't liked smelling Blake on his girl one little bit. The suspicious looks Barsad had been sending in his direction since he'd gotten here hadn't been all that subtle. And only a little subtler that the way Barsad had been nuzzling, caressing, and keeping Beta physically close to him to get his scent all over her in a claim no one with a proper nose could miss.

It was both amusing and sweet, with the added edge of personal pain since Bane had never deliberately covered him in his scent that way to warn others away from him. But then they just didn't have that sort of relationship, now did they? Couldn't, because of the same bitch that had kept these two apart for years.

Life was far too often as much a bitch as Talia, really.

And since four and five would be even more of a crowd than three in this case, Blake stayed off to the side with Salar for the most part, observing the three wolves while staying out of the conversation or even drawing attention to their presence. Not that their ears weren't cocked to hear everything being said no matter how low Beta and Barsad occasionally dropped their voices as they stared into each other's eyes like the star crossed lovers it was embarrassingly obvious they were.

Which, Blake noted, had Kingsley obviously torn between being embarrassed and trying not to look, a little annoyed because when the two zoned out that way they forgot all about him, while also being pleased that his daughter had a man in her life who loved her so much.

Still, when Kingsley got up from his seat and walked over to take a seat beside Blake for the moment he wasn't all that surprised, and would have even suggested they go outside to let the lovebirds have more alone time if not for the fact that the two were too wrapped up in each other to properly protect themselves from a possible attack. All their senses were focused on each other, and that left them too vulnerable given the present climate.

So they were stuck and they all knew it.

"She's said nothing to you about her plan?" Kingsley asked quietly, despite the fact that their hearing was all good enough that he might as well have shouted it.

"No, which concerns me. Not even pulling the pretend alpha card worked for me, and that usually does."

"Knowing what you do about their pack, what would you do in her shoes?"

"I'd temporarily paralyze Bane and rip The Great Bitch's fucking throat out."

Blinking, Kingsley just raised an eyebrow before asking the obvious and most important question. "Is she up to killing her if necessary?"

Blake nodded. "Yes, in a fair fight. Or even in an unfair one, provided it's one on one. She couldn't get past Bane." That he could was left unsaid, just implied. "She's a Gotham survivor, Kingsley. Killing is what we were bred and trained for. And she's been training to kill Talia for decades. That's not what we need to worry about."

"What do we need to worry about?"

"Under what circumstances she kills her. And the backlash that comes from that. Talia is their alpha, however undeserving of that title she is, so Beta can't challenge her in a way they would understand and automatically accept. According to their rules she has to work her way up the ranks to earn the right to face off against the alpha, and while Barsad would submit…"

"Bane won't."

"Exactly. And Talia won't accept a direct challenge, she's not that stupid. In some ways she's probably even weaker than she was the last time she faced Beta simply by virtue of the fact that her father hasn't been alive to push her to excel, and Bane's been her muscle for over a decade. She's been relying on her brains, not her brawn for years now. And while normally that's a good thing, in this case Beta is smarter than she is too."

A short silence of contemplation, and then Kingsley asked if Blake thought his daughter was banking on Bane exiling Talia for the fact that she'd attempted to murder Layla years ago, and had caused her to be sent to Gotham.

"According to what I've been told, Bane promised that only if she'd died as a result of Talia's actions. Beta isn't dead. And the members of that pack have been brainwashed since birth to think of Talia as their alpha, her wellbeing paramount and her word law. There's no guarantee they'll agree to have her expelled from the pack, especially since we can't know what Bane will have to say on the matter."

"What do you think he'll do?"

"Besides piss me off at him?"

A faint sound of amusement. "Besides that, yes."

"I have no idea. And that worries me almost as much as what Beta has up her sleeve."

)

After spending a little over twenty minutes trying to get Beta to tell her what she had planned, she wouldn't even tell Barsad no matter how he tried to reason or pressure her into it, the alarm went off on Blake's cell to inform him that they had company coming. Naturally Blake wasn't surprised that after accessing the images the cameras revealed to him that it was Bane coming to pay a visit, no sign of passengers with him in the vehicle. He'd expected the man earlier, but better late than before Beta unleashed her plan on the masses.

Getting up from the chair he'd been occupying Blake cleared his throat, waiting until all eyes were on him before stating that Bane was coming up the drive and that he was going out to greet and bring him in. If that was okay with them.

"She's not with him?"

Beta's father was quick to reassure her on that count. "Talia is confined to her quarters, as I said."

The look Beta gave him was rueful, her hand leaving Barsad's arm to pat Kingsley's for a moment before returning to its earlier position. "She doesn't tend to stay where she's put…Father. It's one of her many annoying quirks."

While Kingsley all but blushed with pleasure at being called father, Barsad surprised everyone by asking if Bane was armed, his tone of voice suggesting that he wasn't discounting his best friend as a possible threat in this case. One he was prepared to fight, if necessary.

"He wouldn't need one, but no, I won't let him in here with anything. And I wouldn't let him in here if I thought he would hurt her. She's MINE too, you know."

"And yet he's still in denial that he's my alpha." Beta smirked at him, and then grinned at Barsad.

"That's a stupid wolf thing. And I never said I didn't have a dominant personality. An of my exes will swear to that." Winking as he tacked that bit on for a bit of mood lightening, Blake saluted them and then telling Salar to remain behind headed for the front of the cabin, knowing that Bane would be waiting for him outside rather than just coming inside. The wolf wasn't a complete idiot after all.

Opening the door to find Bane leaning against the side of his car, not even daring to step onto the porch without permission given that he hadn't called ahead, Blake raised a hand in teasing greeting, wiggling his fingers in Bane's direction as he walked across the porch to the short set of steps. Steps he didn't bother to use of course, the jaguar in him sniffing at the idea as he jumped down and then continued to saunter over to the wolf who'd straightened up from his deceptively relaxed pose, and was now facing him squarely, eyes focused solely on him.

"She's in there."

"Yes. How'd you guess?"

"I can smell her on you."

Lips twitching a little, how could they not given the tone and his earlier thoughts on the matter, Blake raised a questioning eyebrow. "Problem?"

Bane gave him a cool look. "You know the answer to that."

"Do I?" Moving in closer, Blake deliberately gave the other man as innocent a look as he could manage when he came to a stop with hardly a breath between them, silently daring the wolf to even think he had the right to demand that Blake smell only of him.

Reaching out Bane ran one possessive hand down Blake's back, letting his actions speak for him on that count. "May I go in and see her myself?"

"See but not touch without permission." And realizing how that sounded Blake frowned for a moment before tacking on the explanation that Barsad was feeling very possessive and had allowed Kingsley to hug his daughter once before pulling Beta into his lap and keeping her there.

"They're mates."

"Yes."

A moment of silence, and then Bane's gaze shifted over to look in the direction of the cabin. "When the members of the Sullivan compound visited here, they warned me that if Talia stepped out of line there was someone waiting in the wing who would put her in her grave. They were very careful at the time not to give a gender or species…they meant Layla, didn't they?"

"Can you think of someone who would want her dead more?" Not even his hatred ran as deeply, Blake silently acknowledged, which was saying something. But when you got right down to it Bane had never really been his, but Barsad had been Layla's until they'd been separated. She knew what she'd lost. And had had years of living with that loss.

"Does she intend to kill her now?"

"Currently she has a plan she won't tell me about." And because it needed to be said, a line drawn in the sand so to speak, Blake reached out to forcefully grip the other man's chin so that he could turn Bane's head so that he was looking at him again. "If I have to I'll take you down to protect her. She and I aren't pack, we're family. And I won't let harm come to her. Even if it means hurting you. Don't make me hurt you, Bane."

Their gazes holding without so much as a blink, time passed and then Bane reached up behind his head, undoing the straps that kept his mask in place. And taking it off, Bane let it dangle from one hand, the other now moving to cup Blake's cheek. "I know."

"I know? Did you just 'I know' me?" Thanks to his jaguar genes Blake's jaw had no problem dropping in surprise, even as his brain quickly supplied the answer that Bane had no idea of the pop culture reference he'd just made. Which was confirmed by the confused look Bane gave him as he asked what he meant by that.

"Star Wars, Sweetie. It means…nevermind what it means." And realizing that this brief moment of amusement and calm before the storm had to end, Blake said to hell with it, and framed Bane's face between his hands, giving him the words back. "I know too."

The kiss was short but passionate, the tight, clinging hug that followed it lasting several minutes more before Blake forced himself to pull away and remind them both of what was to come. "We need to go inside."

"Duty calls." Bane agreed softly, taking Blake's hand and bringing it up to place a kiss against his wrist where the webbing would come out if Blake attacked, a final loving touch before Bane's fingers went to work returning his mask to its place over his face, hiding so much of it and his thoughts from view.

Nodding his head in acknowledgement of that, Blake turned around and started back towards the cabin, Bane following after him

)

As he stepped onto the porch Bane heard it, the faintest of sounds that had him looking in the direction of Blake's hands, something telling him to look there. And looking he saw the claws that had come out from under the man's fingernails. Painful, Blake had told him once, when he'd asked about them, but over quickly and worth it for the ten small blades his kitten now had at his disposal. Though not his kitten now. The unsheathing of the claws signaled, like the return of the mask to his face, that this wasn't about them anymore. This was about those under their protection. The people whose wellbeing they put before their own.

Following the other man into the cabin, they didn't have far to go before Layla came into Bane's line of vision, the grown up version of the girl he'd once known standing in the middle of the room with Barsad and Kingsley flanking her, Salar standing off to the side a little, but remaining close enough that he could throw himself into the fray in mere seconds.

Focusing on Layla, his pack mate back from the dead, Bane didn't know what to say to her. A selfish part of him wished she'd never come back, that they'd never learned of what had happened to her, while at the same time her return meant an end was coming. Regardless of what happened today things would change, Layla a pebble dropped into their pond with endless ripples on the horizon. And change was needed, they all knew that.

"Hello, Bane."

"Hello, Layla."

Neither making a move towards each other, Layla's voice was soft when she asked him what he would do now.

"In all honesty, I don't know."

The look Layla gave him was kind and gentle, making it clear that no matter what horrors she'd experienced at Gotham, her core personality had remained the same. A fierce, but loving protector of her pack and family.

"I thought that would be your answer. You haven't changed. But I owe you a debt, my old friend, and I'll honor that. Just give me a few minutes to change and then I'll go with you to face her. You won't have to decide what to do about Talia and what's she's done."

"You owe me no debt. It's I that failed to protect you." He'd known that Talia was jealous of her after all. He should have seen the attack coming, should have found some way to keep her safe and with Barsad.

"No. She'd have found a way. She always finds a way. You know that. And I owe you for taking care of Barsad when I couldn't." A brief look in Barsad's direction, a squeezing of the hand she held, and then Layla looked back over at Bane to meet his gaze. "Whatever happens today, I don't blame you for anything."

Knowing he was undeserving of that, but that she wouldn't listen, Bane inclined his head in acknowledgement instead.

"I'll be right back, promise." Giving Barsad's hand one last squeeze, Layla tugged on the hand that held hers, her gaze locking with Barsad's when he refused to let go.

Finally he let go, and with a smile meant to encompass all of them Layla headed out of the room, Blake stating that he needed to change too, leaving the four wolves alone in the room to stand around and wait for the other two to return.

Turning his gaze to his closest and most trusted friend, Bane didn't know what to say to Barsad, who was very pointedly ignoring him at the moment. But something had to be said, especially since there was no one's advice he valued more. "Exiling her won't work. And I…I can't kill her. I'm sorry, but I can't."

"Then let me do it."

"I can't."

"Let the rest of the pack vote about what to do. Let everyone have a voice."

Both wolves turned their head to look at Salar, who was obviously fighting his need to look away as he continued to meet their gazes head on. "I know there's a hierarchy, and that we've been trained since birth to let the higher ranking wolves make all the decisions, but that's not fair. And it will backfire in this case. She has a lot of supporters, we-you need to do this as fairly and openly as possible. Layla no more wants to tears the pack apart than any of us do."

"And she has this plan of hers. We should find out what that is too." Kingsley added, finally joining the conversation.

Knowing that to be true, and none of them wanting to fight amongst each other, the four nodded in silent acknowledgement of the FUBAR situation they were in.

And the fact that it was probably going to get worse before it got better.


	8. Alea Iacta Est

Alea Iacta Est

Having changed into a long sleeved shirt, cargo pants, and serious boots, Blake leaned against the wall as he waited for Beta to join him, the wait not a long one since Beta was dressing down, not up for this. And he wasn't surprised that her clothing was basically identical to him when she came out of the bathroom, her hair now braided and wrapped up into a bun that wouldn't give Talia any hair to yank on. She did strike Blake as a hair pulling type, after all. And without her hair styled to cover up almost half of her face Beta's facial scars and the eyepatch were much more noticeable, Blake noted briefly, his attention more focused on her torso. It was just barely visible under the cotton of her shirt, but Blake could see that she was wearing her back brace underneath, which was good. Sometimes she was stupidly stubborn about wearing it, but she wasn't taking the chance that the previous damage done to her back could be used against her in this fight. She would never be able to handle being beaten by Talia.

"You know it would help if I knew what your plan was."

"It will be fine."

"If you've come up with a way to fight her, you know she'll cheat."

"I know."

"And I feel like I have to reiterate what I said last night, about how you will destroy Barsad completely and totally if you die in front of him. And I sorta like him, actually, even if he does have horrible taste in friends." She could do a lot worse, anyway. Though he, Arthur, and at least Bruce, would still give the wolf a hard time just because Beta was like a sister to them, and therefore no man was ever going to be good enough for her in their eyes.

Rather than comment, Beta moved in and gave him a tight hug, Blake sighing as he hugged her back. She was playing him, obviously, but he was going to let her get away with it for the time being. Especially since he did have enough faith in her to know that whatever her plan was, she'd have thought it through. Even if it was apparently so crazy she was refusing to tell him about it.

"Come on. Our mates are waiting for us."

Giving her a less than impressed look, Blake didn't bother to argue about who Bane was to him as he followed her down the stairs and towards the front door, the other wolves joining them when she called out to them that they were leaving now.

"Where are we going?" Barsad asked, though his expression said he already knew the answer to his question.

"Wherever Talia is. She and I need to talk."

"She will not fight you."

Beta turned her head to meet Bane's gaze, the feral smile that curved her lips sending shivers of awareness down the spines of every male in the room.

"Yes, she will. And I'll see her whether you come with me or not. Getting in my way won't end well for ANY of you. She and I have unfinished business to discuss, and her days of fucking with the people I love ends today." A glance in Bane's direction. "How this ends depends on her, but she and I are having it out. Today."

None of them were stupid enough to argue with her.

They knew a woman on a mission when they saw one. And none of them wanted to be collateral damage. So rather than argue they all exited the cabin, Blake locking up behind them before they headed for the vehicles parked in front of it.

Bane went to his car to lead the way, the rest of them thankfully all able to fit in Kingsley's car. Blake ended up riding shotgun, since there was no way Barsad wasn't sitting beside Beta and Salar pointed out that as the other alpha in the vehicle, technically, Blake should be riding in front anyway.

This of course led to a discussion of whether it was better for him to be in the front or in the back of the car, a ridiculous thing to get hung up on course, but it was something to talk about during the relatively short car ride, the last four minutes or so spent in rather awkward, anticipatory silence that ended when the car came to a stop, Blake ordering Barsad and Kingsley to keep Beta between them. He and Salar would bring up the rear.

The silence that had preceded that statement contrasted sharply with the outside world when they left the car, Bane had apparently made some calls while in his vehicle, and so the vast majority of Beta's former pack was congregating in front of the house Talia had been sequestered in, the woman herself standing on the house's front stoop with her arms tightly crossed in front of her, her pinched expression and the way she flinched at the sight of Beta gratifying. And to be expected.

Talia might not admit, even to herself, that Beta was her superior, Blake knew, but the fact that she was alive confirmed one, undeniable thing. That Talia's father had lied to her when he'd told her that Layla was dead.

Sandwiched between her mate and father, Beta didn't have a lot of room to move around as they headed towards the house, but the whole pack made it work as those who remembered her, the way she'd led and taken care of them before she'd been taken from them, and therefore embraced her as a pack member and not as an unknown. Others remembered but hung back, their training warring and winning over their more personal feelings about her sudden reappearance. And of course there were those who were loyal to Talia to the bone, and who stood as a protective wall between the two women, prepared to leap to their alpha's defense at the slightest hint of aggression from Beta.

Because no one believed that there wasn't going to be blood shed.

Greetings and nods exchanged, those who weren't protecting Talia from her moved out of Beta's way so that she could get closer to the woman whose actions had caused her to be banished and sent to the living hell that had been the Gotham compound.

Beta made no attempt to battle her way through the line of defense in front of her, stopping when she was just out of arm reach of the guards, the men protecting her all braced to defend as well, Blake's claws out and ready to maim.

"Talia."

"Layla."

"I'd say that you've brought dishonor to the pack, but those were just lines your father fed us, weren't they? We were never meant to be honorable or just. We weren't created to make this world a better place and do work we could be proud of. We were meant to do two things and two things only. Enslave the world so that your father could run it the way he wanted in to be, and to hell with what the rest of the population wanted, and to protect the two of you. Die and bleed for you so that you two could just sit back and let us suffer in your place."

Multiple sounds of shock echoed in the small clearing, Talia's father considered sacrosanct in their wolf pack. You did NOT speak badly of him. Ever.

"You dare to speak of my father that way!"

"Well if he wanted me to remain brainwashed where he was concerned, he shouldn't have written down his plans for us for me to read."

And on that note Beta reached into the large sized pocket located on her right thigh, removing from it a hand sized leather book, which she held up for everyone to see.

The shock was ten times greater now, the book one the whole pack knew and would recognize anywhere. It was their former leader's book. The one Ra's al Ghul had carried with him always, and had often been seen writing in. His manifesto, he'd called it, though none had ever been honored with the chance to read his words.

A book not seen since al Ghul had disappeared.

A book that had never left al Ghul's possession.

Talia's howl of absolute fury erupted and blasted the ears of everyone present, her face contorting into one of all consuming rage and hatred.

)

Bane barely made it in time to intercept Talia, only his nearness to her making it possible since he'd been frozen dumb along with everyone else at the sudden appearance of their leader's book, and more, the obvious conclusions one could draw from her possession of it. Because al Ghul would have given up that book over his dead body. And the man had not been seen since their capture and transportation to England to 'join' their genetic parent's pack.

They'd all concluded long ago that he was dead.

Breaking through her wall of protection as she did, Bane got in front of Talia and placed restraining hands on her shoulders as he spoke loud enough for all to hear. "She was too injured to have killed him. It wasn't her, Talia. Don't let her manipulate you."

Possibly too far gone to understand him, too deep in her rage and pain to hear or comprehend, Talia simply snarled up at him and tried to break his grip on her shoulders without success, the hands she put on his chest to try and push him out of her way further proof of her state of mind.

"I didn't kill him. Like Bane, said I wasn't up to it. But I do know who killed him. And a bunch of other information you might find interesting involving his death." Reaching into her pocket again, Beta held up a USB between two fingers. "And this and the book, why it can be all yours, Talia."

Arms sliding between Bane's arms and torso, Talia's fingers curved into claws as she continued to try to get at Beta, Bane remaining firmly planted in her way. "Give them both to me! That was my father's! I deserve to know what happened to him!"

"And I'm challenging you to a fight for position of Alpha of your pack. And don't say that I have to fight Barsad or Bane for that right. It's you and me, Talia. That's how it has to be. Agree, or I crush this USB and I burn this book. Which means you'll never see either again. They'll be gone forever."

Gasps all around.

The rules had been laid out long ago concerning challenges. A challenge had to be accepted. There was no weaseling out of it; the only way for the challenged to honorably avoid the match in question was if he or she could legitimately claim that their challenger was too far down in the ranks to be worthy of facing off with them. In that case the challenged could insist that their challenger prove this or her worth by defeating an individual close to the higher ranking individual's own level. Hence Beta stating that Talia wasn't allowed to pass on the challenge to Bane or Barsad, insuring that the prey she'd come for was the prey she wanted.

"BANE! Take them from her!"

Ideally he would do exactly that, to remove the treat from the trap, but Bane knew that realistically, he couldn't. "I'd have to get through Barsad, Blake, Salar, and Kingsley to get to her." And none of them would go down easy, particularly his kitten and Barsad. "You know that she'll destroy both items before I got through them just for spite. And if I harm Kingsley his pack will be after ours. You don't want that bloodshed."

The look she gave Bane said that yes, yes she did want that bloodshed. She wanted them all dead. Every single person that got in her way, dead.

"Talia. Think."

"Is that a no, Tally?"

Beta's words sinking in, Bane knew what was coming, the use of that hated nickname always the last straw. No one but Beta had used that particularly hated moniker in decades.

"I accept, you bitch! And I'm going to rip your heart right out your chest!"

"You and what army?"

"Ten minutes! The football pitch! Bane, let me go!"

Seeing no alternative, Alea iacta est, as it were, the die has been caste, Bane let Talia go, the feeling of her slip through his fingers making his chest ache and his hands shake a little as they dropped down to his sides. But what else could he do now? There was no way to stop her.

Whirling around Talia march back towards the house, throwing the door open and then slamming it shut behind her.

"All right…explain to me why I wouldn't have approved of that plan?" Blake's tone was utterly confused, as was Bane, for that matter, since now that Blake mentioned it, he couldn't see why she would have withheld the knowledge from Blake either. It was a simple, logical plan.

Beta's tone was lightly amused. "Not telling you meant that you could honestly say you didn't know what I was going to do before I did it."

Turning around to face them, Bane locked eyes with Beta. And while normally their audience would give him pause, there was no point in holding back. In pretending they all didn't know how this was going to all go down. "Please don't kill her."

"That depends on her. You know it does."

Technically a challenge to increase one's rank within their pack ended when one of the combatants either lost consciousness, or yielded. And it went without saying that Talia would never yield. Which meant Talia would either have to lose consciousness…or die.

Even with rage on her side Bane knew in his heart that Talia couldn't win this fight. Not in a fair fight, anyway. That Talia wasn't likely to fight fair also went without saying, Bane under no illusion when it came to what Talia was capable of here, especially when there was not just Talia's pride and rank riding on this, but the not at all small matter of the book and USB Beta had used as bait to get Talia to agree to the fight in the first place.

His gaze dropping to the items in question, Beta very pointedly turned and handed them off to Blake, who took them and put them in his own trouser thigh pocket.

The way his kitten looked at him had Bane looking away, unable to bear the sympathy and understanding he saw on the other man's face.

Instead he turned his attention to giving orders to his men to head for the field, knowing that they'd need to witness this. Not that he could probably keep any of them away without giving them orders to do so, and he couldn't in this case.

All of this, according to the rules set forth by Ra's al Ghul, was beyond his control now.

)

Ten minutes later the majority of both Kingsley's pack and Talia's were present on the pitch, spread out in a large circle while the two women stood in the middle, dressed for combat as they circled each other while their silent audience hoped for various outcomes. Kingsley was bracketed between Eames's father and Barsad, while on Barsad's other side Bane stood with Bane's father on his right. Blake stood a slight distance away from them all with Salar, knowing he couldn't stand at Bane's side, and that even if he could…his presence would not be welcome.

When the women went at each other, they did so silently and with lethal grace. It had been years since they'd fought, since that last, life changing struggle that Beta had both won and lost, but as the first few punches and kicks were avoided and deflected as they fell into a rhythm, it was obvious that they both knew each other's fighting style.

And then Beta started to make clear that she'd been trained in a whole other way of fighting.

Playtime was over, it seemed, as blood scented the air and the sound of cartilage breaking broke the silence as Talia's nose broke.

But Talia was far from beaten, the kick she aimed in Beta's direction just brushing by her as Beta dodged out of the way, grabbing the leg in turn and twisting it hard, her intent to break it obvious from the hold she was using. Talia was not about to let that happen though, and contorted backward so that her hands steadied her Talia kicked out again with her free leg, freeing herself for the moment.

They returned to bobbing and weaving, thought that didn't last long before Beta was delivering full body blows that featured lethal right and left hooks, and a roundhouse kick that had Talia flying backward onto her ass, Talia's curses painting the air.

"Gym fit ain't street fit, Tally. That all you got?"

When she got to her feet there was a new gleam in Talia's eyes, one that suggested that she'd burned through the earlier rage that had driven her to blindly accept the challenge Beta had issued. Now an icy, though not quite sane cool seemed to have overtaken her.

And with it proof that she had noticed what was underneath Beta's shirt.

The brace could only do so much, after all, and the grievous injuries Beta had received while leaving the Gotham compound still affected her ability to twist and bend her spine, which Talia had also noticed and now did her level best to take advantage of.

Which meant she got some hits in now as the battle continued, Beta's blood hitting the ground too and new bruises blooming, but Blake, Arthur, and those loyal to them had spent hours upon hours training Beta to find ways to get around her weaknesses. And more importantly, they'd taught her not to fight with honor.

They'd taught her how to win at all costs because the alternative, especially in Gotham, was death.

Hence the punch to Talia's throat, followed by Beta getting a good grip on one of Talia's ears and tearing it partly before Talia managed to get loose.

Stumbling back as she screamed in pain and outrage as she clutched her torn ear, Talia's other hand seemed to brace on her thigh as she recovered, and then suddenly she was bolting forward and swinging out at Beta, the blow just making contact, the light hitting metal on that fist as three thin scratches bloomed on her cheek.

Hissing a curse, Beta grabbed that fist and twisting it painfully forced Talia to punch herself in the face a couple of times before kicking Talia away from her. Talia landed on her ass, the look on her face as she clutched her scratched up jaw a mixture of fury, fear, and foreboding.

Standing in front of her, Beta stared down at Talia with knowing eyes, her gaze landing on the ring Talia had slid on moments before. "Laced it, did you? That ring you slipped on? Because if you did, you should know that in Gotham, Crane dosed us all regularly with poisons and paralyzers so that we'd build up an immunity to them. Unless you have Arthur's venom on that ring, odds are I'll be fine. What's it going to do to you?"

Talia didn't answer.

She was too busy falling backward, her body shuddering in small, spastic convulsions.


	9. How It Will Be

Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the plot. Thanks for reading and sticking with it until the end!

How It Will Be

Bane knew Talia was dead. As soon as he'd seen the glint of the ring on her finger he'd known that there was no hope of saving her if it was used against her. Which he'd known Layla would do, the woman his former packmate had become no doubt smart enough to surmise that Talia would only have put it on to use as a weapon. Knowing Talia as he did, as well as the weapons both hidden and obvious that she kept on hand, Bane had both recognized the ring and known what poison was contained within it on sight.

It was meant to paralyze on contact for a couple minutes, giving Talia time to either kill her opponent as she wished or simply walk away, knowing that the poison would kill off the individual within the next five minutes depending on their size and point of contact. Talia most likely had intended to paralyze, moving in quick to snap Layla's neck so that her trickery went undiscovered as the use of concealed weapons weren't allowed in a challenge.

Layla had moved off to the side so that she didn't impede him as Bane dropped to his knees beside Talia's quivering body, the poison now finishing the job. And so she stared up at him without sight, already slipping away to a place where he couldn't reach her.

That she couldn't speak, at least, was probably for the best.

If she could speak Bane had no doubt that her final words would be a call to be avenged, for blood to be shed in her name. No soft words, no goodbyes. No remorse.

"I'm sorry for the pain this causes you."

Refusing to look away from Talia's face, Bane nodded his head ever so slightly in acknowledgement of the sentiment.

He didn't blame Layla for this. In so many ways this had been unavoidable. Just like in so many Greek plays and classic novels, Talia had put into motion her own destruction when she had tried to kill Layla all those years ago. She'd brought into the fight the weapon that had killed her, just as she had chosen to make in Layla an enemy she could not overcome and defeat. Who would be driven to end the woman who had so shaped and changed the course of Layla's life for the worst.

Goodbye, Little Sister of my Heart, Bane thought to Talia as he gently stroked her cheek, her body going still now, the life leaving her unseeing eyes. Be at peace with your father. I hope we will meet again someday.

"Do you want Blake?"

He did. He wanted nothing more than his kitten to hold onto, to comfort him and stand as a buffer between him and the reality of what had happened. The uncertainty of what would come. And Bane knew that Blake would hold and comfort him, would grieve over his pain even though his mate could never truly be sorry that Talia was dead and wouldn't insult him by pretending otherwise.

But he was still alpha of his pack. He still had to be the strong one. The one his pack mates could turn to for support as Talia's death insured that all their lives were now changed. Everything was changed now.

So Bane shook his head as he got to his feet, cradling Talia's limp form in his arms. "Not yet."

Nodding her head in understanding, Layla moved to walk towards the crowd that watched them like hawks from the sidelines, Barsad, Kingsey, and Blake all having moved in a little closer than everyone else. For the moment they were all showing restraint by not coming over to collect Layla to insure that Bane didn't attack her or anyone else in his grief, but that would only last for so long.

Layla took only a couple steps though before looking back at him, angling her body so that none could see her lips move or read her expression. "With both Arthur and I here he'll need a new beta. And Barsad and I can run the pack together. There's no need for you to carry that burden any longer unless it's what you want. Do what YOU want, Bane. You've earned you're peace."

And so saying she walked away to rejoin her family, Bane watching her go before he too started walking towards the pack.

There were things that needed to be done.

)

Sprawled out on the couch, and doing an excellent impression of a sulking teenager according to his brother, Blake stared at the screen of his phone, which had yet to light up with a text message or incoming call. In the background he could hear Eames and Arthur discussing their plans to remain in England with the twins with Eames parents, plans he should be in the middle of since this was his little brother and nephews under discussion. But for the moment Blake found he couldn't care about any of that so long as he remained in the dark about how Beta and Bane were doing.

After letting them see for themselves that she was alright Beta had gone off with Barsad and her old pack to officially take it over, as well as start planning the disposal of Talia's body. It would be cremation, as that was the method of disposal most often used by the wolves, but if asked Blake would have recommended throwing the bitch on a garbage heap to rot if not for Bane. Not that anyone would be mental enough to ask him what he thought on the matter.

Which didn't mean they couldn't pick up their God damn cell phones and send him messages to let him know that they were alright, Blake mentally fumed at the screen, tempted to message them again, even though he'd sent the last two only twenty minutes ago. None of his messages to Bane were being answered, and while Beta was responded periodically, she couldn't tell him how Bane was really doing.

Though he appreciated the fact that her messages meant he knew she wasn't dead at least. He didn't exactly trust Talia's former groupies and fanatics not to try and kill his friend, new female alpha or not. Not to mention there was the nagging voices, in the back of his mind, whispering of what Bane might yet do. Was capable of in his grief.

Bane had loved Talia. Simple as that. As flawed, evil, and completely undeserving of Bane's love as she'd been, Blake knew that that was the level of devotion Bane had felt for her. A man as brilliant and logical as Bane…only a deep and abiding love could keep someone like his mate tied to someone like Talia willingly. And yes, the well-being of the pack played into it too, but if Bane had wanted to wrestle control of it from Talia he could have. But hadn't.

A lot of it was the brainwashing too, Blake wasn't about to discount that, but at the end of the day he also knew what it was to love family to the point where no matter their actions, that love would never be diminished.

Most of all though, there was the undeniable fact that Bane's whole life and existence had revolved around Talia's from Day One. Serving and protecting her was Bane's mission in life. What he had been trained to do from the cradle. Bane had never been allowed, or even realized he was allowed to have wants and goals that didn't benefit Talia in some way. That a person shouldn't live solely to please someone else. That a life lived that way was no life at all. And now Talia was dead, and Bane would be adrift in a world suddenly without a purpose. Feeling as though he had failed in the life goal he'd been given.

Damn her.

Slamming a fist into the top of the couch, Blake jumped up to his feet to start pacing, suddenly full of energy and a need to move before he exploded.

"Blake."

Still pacing the length of the room and back Blake glanced in the direction of his brother, who stood in the doorway watching him, his approach soundless and without warning. Not that Blake hadn't known the moment his twin had drawn near, but that was normal.

"Why hasn't he called me yet?!"

"Perhaps he doesn't feel he can call?" Slinking into the room, Arthur perched on the arm of the couch. "Or they aren't done their wolfie rituals for the night. If nothing else you know Beta will message us if she feels you're needed."

"If he doesn't call soon I'm going to kill him."

"In his present mind frame, that might be what he wants."

Knowing Bane as he did that possibility had been swirling around the back of Blake's mind for hours now, and having Arthur voice it wasn't helping him ignore that thought one little bit. Because he could see it. Believe it. Feared it.

And knowing himself well enough to know he wasn't up to being rational about this, Blake asked his brother if he should just hunt Bane down instead of waiting.

"His men won't let you near him right now if you aren't wanted. And you beating the shit out of Beta's new pack won't endear you to anyone."

Good point.

"I feel helpless."

A feeling that they both knew Blake hated more than any other emotion. Even fear and pain were preferable.

"You do know how you'll have to handle him when you do see him, right?"

Cocking an eyebrow at his brother Blake had a feeling that no, he didn't know what Arthur meant by that, and it would be a good idea for him to listen to his twin's opinion.

"I know you remember how we were when we first got out of the compound and were on our own for the first time in our lives. How institutionalized we were. How hard it was to unlearn certain mindsets and ways of doing things. How loud, chaotic, and threatening the outside world seemed. Nothing made sense at times, and we all had to depend on each other a lot more than we did while in the compound. We were different from everyone else, and understanding those not like us…took a very long time even with all the information we were given in training."

Opening his mouth to ask what the hell that had to do with Bane, Blake's brain provided him with the answer a breath later. Of course. He was a fucking idiot.

Bane had never really left his compound.

The wolf had remained in his pack his whole life, had never lived a life that didn't revolve around it and Talia. Now the latter was dead and the former was going to be seriously overhauled and revamped now that Beta was going to be his co leader, and that was only if Bane remained in that role. He didn't have to, now that Barsad would be the more logical choice since he was Beta's mate. Having the alpha couple be a mated pair would appeal to the pack, and the two would be more than willing to take all the pack responsibility off of Bane's shoulders.

Ergo, for the first time in his life Bane had choices.

And choices, when you'd never had them before, could be a fucking scary thing.

Hell, one of Arthur's favorite movies was 'Shawshank Redemption', and all of them had understood the concept of being 'institutionalized' when it had been discussed among the prisoners. When someone told you for most of your life when to eat, sleep and even wear…it was hard as fuck to wrap your mind around the fact that your life didn't have to be regimented and controlled by someone else. Hard not to fall back into old routines or restrict yourself of your own free will, just because there was comfort in the familiar and routine.

"Fuck. He's probably terrified if he's realized it yet."

"And men like him don't handle that well."

Sharing a look of complete understanding, Blake thanked his brother for the food for thought, his thoughts now veering in a very different direction as he went back to his pacing and Arthur left him to it.

Fifteen minutes later his cell phone signaled an incoming text message.

'My place, please.'

"Finally."

And on that note Blake called out to the others where he was going, and then off he went to retrieve his jacket, hop into the car, and get his ass to Bane's place.

)

Shortly after the text from Bane Beta texted him to say that Barsad had walked Bane back to his place and then left his friend alone at his request. Apparently Bane had promised to get in touch with Blake, but she hadn't been about to take his word for it and therefore was making sure Blake was on his way, which he assured her he was. She and Barsad were both happy to hear that, according to her follow up text.

Wishing them both good night via text, and not wanting to have to stop again so that he could message them, Blake informed them that he was putting his phone on silent and wouldn't be paying it an attention unless Beta used the emergency number.

'Roger that' was her reply.

Pulling up beside Bane's place Blake turned off the engine and got out of the car, locking it out of habit as opposed to any real thought behind the action. All his thoughts were centered and focused on Bane.

The front door wasn't locked when Blake reached it, nor the security engaged, so Blake did that for Bane as soon as he was inside since he wanted warning if someone tried to enter and interrupt them. Then he followed his nose to locate Bane, the other man sitting in the middle of his living room floor, facing his fireplace and staring into its flames.

Walking over to stand in front of Bane, Blake looked down at him for a heartbeat and then gracefully slid down to his own knees before shuffling forward to climb into Bane's lap, wrapping his arms as far around Bane as he could manage while the wolf buried his face against the side of his neck, arms grabbing hold of him in turn.

Bane's mask was uncomfortable as it brushed against Blake's skin, but that hardly mattered when the scrape of the metal was paired with the wetness of tears. And Bane made not a sound aside from his ragged, harsh breathing, which made it that much more heartbreaking.

How long he held his mate Blake couldn't have said; that wasn't important. What was important was holding his mate while Bane wept for his loss. And only after Bane was all cried out and mostly limp in his arms did Blake draw back a little, gently cupping Bane's face and bringing it out from his neck so that their eyes could meet as he spoke.

"So you better pay attention and listen up, because this is how it's going to be." A moment for that order to sink in. "We're going to stay here about a week more, so that you can see your pack safely put into Beta and Barsad's hands, and take care of Talia's funeral and whatever else goes with that, and then we're leaving England and you're coming home with me. You're going to live with me, and I'm going to be your alpha. I'll take care of you, and the only things you'll have to worry about are how to sneak green vegetables into my diet and how to convince me to spend less time watching TV. You'll help me out with work sometimes, and the rest of the time you'll read, take some online classes, maybe, and generally do stuff that makes you happy. I won't back down on that. If you want your own room at first that's up to you, but by the end of the year I plan to have you sharing my bed, and we're going to have as much sex as you can handle once that happens. And we're having kids eventually, FYI, and I'm going to make you so fucking happy to be mine, Bane. Because you are mine. You know that, don't you?"

Bane stared back at him, new tears building up in his eyes even though these didn't fall as Bane held his gaze for several nervous heartbeats before he nodded. "Yes."

"Good. No backing out. I'll kick your ass if you do."

With his mask on Bane's mouth was hidden from view, but the way his eyes crinkled slightly hinted that beneath the metal he was smiling at least a little.

And then Bane leaned in again, burying his face back against Blake's neck again. "Will you tell me your name, now?"

Huffing out a sigh, Blake had to admit that the wolf knew how to pick a moment. And if that was all Bane needed from him to reassure him that he meant it…well so be it. "If you call me it or Kitten around anyone I will punish you."

A rasp sound of amusement. "I know."

Another sigh. "Robin."

"Robin." Bane repeated, the way he said it making it sound like an endearment. "It suits you."

Since cats ate birds Blake didn't think so, but he wasn't going to argue about it.

"Blake?"

"Yeah?"

"We're mates now. For life?"

"For life."

"Thank you."

Actions spoke louder than words in this case, and so Blake snuggled in and continued to hold his man, mentally planning all the ways he was going to drive Bane crazy happy in the future. And just plan crazy too, because let's face it, this was him they were talking about here.

But that was okay. Because they were mates, and there was no way Blake was letting him out of his web ever again.

Thank God.

The End


End file.
